Kazakhstan’s customs service has dramatically tightened inspections of cargo traffic bound for Russia, creating massive queues at border crossings.
According to Kommersant on October 2, since mid-September officers have been inspecting 99% of trucks carrying potentially sanction-sensitive goods from China into Russia. This has triggered multi-kilometer jams along the Kazakh-Russian frontier.
“Many carriers, fearing inspection, pull over into waiting areas to ‘bide their time,’” explained Maksim Yemelin, deputy head of logistics at SLK. He noted that even cargo not subject to sanctions now faces delays: “Goods that are not sanctioned take an average of 3–5 days to cross the border, which is also longer than before.”
According to Kommersant, industry experts confirm that the disruption is linked to intensified checks at checkpoints, aimed at identifying dishonest shippers and carriers.
“These checks affect major clients to a lesser degree, since they move 30–50 trucks across the border each week,” said Yaroslav Belousov, director of international transport operations at FM Logistic in Russia.
He added that parking near border points has reached capacity, forcing vehicles to line up along roadsides. Sources estimate that about 7,500 trucks are currently stuck on the Kazakhstan–Russia border.
“There’s a list of goods that are too risky to haul through Kazakhstan—they get turned back 100% of the time, including microchips and any kind of machinery,” stressed Alexander Azatyan, head of logistics at YM Trans Group.
Yemelin agreed that the situation is unlikely to improve in the near term, as sanction-sensitive goods will continue to pile up in queues, while ordinary cargo clears the border only slowly.
Earlier, it was reported that Kazakhstan secured an agreement with the European Commission to lift restrictions on the transit of its coal through Russian port.
