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Bishkek finds 40 companies at sanctions risk, and closes three

About 40 companies carrying heightened sanctions risk have been identified in Kyrgyzstan since the start of July. Three have been shut and a cryptocurrency licence revoked, and the three match names on the European Union’s new list.

Pashinyan asks Putin to lift the export bans

Armenia’s prime minister raised the Russian restrictions with Putin by telephone on Monday, the day the dairy ban took effect, and told him they contradict both the bilateral treaty framework and the rules of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Armenia’s dairy ban takes effect

Russia’s restriction on Armenian dairy came into force on Monday. Yerevan’s food safety inspectorate says the joint inspection behind it found nothing of the kind.

Kabul and Tashkent sign 22 documents worth $200 million

This morning the desk asked which goods would appear when the paperwork did. Cotton appeared first, at 10,000 tonnes on trial with an offer for 100,000 more.

Tashkent sends a 300-strong business delegation to Kabul

Uzbekistan’s deputy prime minister spent the weekend in Kabul with a delegation and a tariff offer. The stated target is $5 billion of trade.

EcoIslamicBank goes on the EU list from 13 August

The 21st package names a Kyrgyz bank, three Bishkek companies and two Kazakh ones. Within a day, transfers from Russia to four countries stopped going through.

Kazakhstan moves from a fine to a seizure at Kashagan

Property and vehicles belonging to the Kashagan operator went under restriction on 21 July. The justice ministry has told the operator’s managing director he could face criminal liability.

Mongolia enters the EAEU tariff system

The interim trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and Mongolia entered into force on 22 July. Duties are cut or removed on 367 tariff subheadings for each side, covering about 90% of the trade between them, for three years with automatic renewal. By the commission’s account, Mongolia has no comparable agreement with anyone else in the region.

Uzbekistan signs its own commercial court into law

President Mirziyoyev has signed the constitutional law on the Tashkent International Financial Centre, which takes effect on 25 July. It creates a special jurisdiction with its own regulation and its own court: the Tashkent International Commercial Court, with a first instance and an appeal chamber, for commercial, corporate and financial disputes inside the centre.

Moscow starts Uzbekistan up the produce ladder

Rosselkhoznadzor will restrict imports from five Uzbek exporters from 23 July, citing phytosanitary violations: cabbage, onions, herbs, beetroot, tomatoes and grapes. In May the same regulator suspended ten Uzbek exporters. Armenia climbed this ladder rung by rung this spring, to a full ban in June.

The first e-TIR truck heads for Turkmenistan

The first pilot shipment under the electronic TIR customs system between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan began this week, the head of Azerbaijan’s road carriers association said: the cargo has already crossed from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan over the Caspian and moves on to Turkmenistan next.

The marked tenge is money now

Rusal exploring $20 million cable and wire plant in Mongolia

A proposed plant near Ulaanbaatar would produce 4,500 tonnes of cables and conductors a year using Russian aluminium wire rod for Mongolia’s domestic market, Central Asia Wire has learned.

One day of $84 oil moves the tenge and cannot move the som

Kazakhstan’s official dollar rate dropped from 477.11 to 468.88 tenge on Wednesday, a 1.7% strengthening in a single daily fixing, the day after Brent settled at $84.73. Kyrgyzstan’s som stood at 87.45, where it has stood for a month, nine interventions and a billion dollars deep. The same oil price flows into both economies; only one exchange rate is allowed to say so.

EU sanctions reach the Russian cloud under Kazakh business

The European Union’s cyber-sanctions list of 13 July names the VK holding directly for the first time, along with the developer of the Max state messenger and VK’s chief executive. In Kazakhstan, VK Cloud told clients everything works as usual. That is true, and beside the point for every Kazakh company built on the platform.

Uzbekistan’s central bank pushes back on the P2P reporting draft

The Central Bank has formally objected, on bank-secrecy grounds, to the draft that would make banks report large personal transfers to the tax authorities. The State Tax Committee answered over the weekend: no mass control of personal transfers is planned, and P2P transfers between individuals are not in themselves taxable. The comment period is closed and the decision now sits inside the government.

China builds Tajikistan’s answer to its $600 million rebar bill

On 9 July, Emomali Rahmon toured the site of Tajikistan’s largest new metals project, a plant on the Shohkadam iron-ore deposit meant to end the country’s reliance on imported steel. The company on paper is Tajik. The firms building it, supplying its core technology and wiring its power are Chinese, Indian and Austrian.

Kyrgyzstan drops its own price cap after the capped fuel vanished from pumps

Kyrgyzstan's government has removed AI-95 gasoline from price controls it imposed in May, after the capped fuel disappeared from filling stations in Bishkek. The subsidy scheme survives; the hard retail ceiling on the grade it was meant to protect does not.

Kazakhstan signs crypto decree that lets miners run on gas the grid doesn't need

President Tokayev signed a decree on 8 July laying out rules for a regulated digital-asset market, stablecoins, tax breaks and tokenised government bonds. One detail stands out: crypto miners can now be powered by associated petroleum and natural gas when the state doesn't need it for other purposes.

Kyrgyzstan borrows to fix its finances while opening a zone that pays no tax

On 1 July the Asian Development Bank approved another $70 million for Kyrgyzstan, this time to strengthen fiscal management and governance. Days earlier, on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, the government had opened a financial zone offering 49 years without tax. Bishkek is borrowing from the development banks to shore up a budget it is hollowing out at home.