Some media outlets published an interview of President Sadyr Zhaparov, which he gave to a Russian journalist. The issues regarding the attitude of Western countries towards Russia, as well as its impact on Kyrgyzstan, were discussed. Kabar News Agency asked the president to comment on this issue.
Hello. Recently, Pavel Zarubin, a journalist from the TV channel Russia-1 published your interview, which was distributed by a number of media. It was about your opinion that Western countries should not tell Kyrgyzstan whether to cooperate with Russia and CIS countries or not. Could you elaborate on this? Have there been requests to cease cooperation with Russia or the CIS? Is it possible to refuse cooperation with these countries?
At the forum in Ashgabat, Russian journalists unexpectedly asked me a similar question. I was not prepared, but I tried to give a clear response.
I'll try to give an even more comprehensive answer since you asked.
Since the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Western countries have continued to condemn Russia. Certainly, there are Western countries that ask us
not to cooperate with Russia. However, I always openly and sincerely respond to them: “We cannot refuse to cooperate with Russia. Our trade turnover with Russia exceeds 4 billion dollars. We buy oil, gas, wheat and other from Russia. Geographically, we are in a landlocked area. Our road and rail routes to the world pass through Russia. Russia hosts about a million of our migrants. How can we not cooperate with Russia?
Moreover, you yourselves, some EU countries, despite sanctions, continue to work with Russia. Your trade with Russia reaches 6 billion dollars a year. When you need it, you cooperate with Russia, but we are not allowed to. This is an unfair demand” - that's my direct answer. Since I came to power four years ago, we have had a multi-vector foreign policy.
We cooperate equally and on an equal basis with various countries around the world in mutual interests.
Furthermore, we recently signed a cooperation agreement with the European Union. We also cooperate with other CIS countries.
Trade turnover with some CIS countries has increased sevenfold in the last four years.
We are also geographically close to the CIS countries. We can say that our daily affairs are closely intertwined with them.
We depend on each other on some issues, so it is impossible to refuse to cooperate with them.
Is the request to stop cooperating with Russia related to the Western sanctions imposed against that country, or is there suspicion that Kyrgyzstan is helping to circumvent the sanctions?
Of course, as a UN member, we do not work with sanctioned goods that are subject to restrictions against Russia. Therefore, no claims can be made against us on this issue.
There are no suspicions and there cannot be any. This is apparently just hatred toward Russia.
Interviewed by Mederbek Shermetaliev
