Trade Tensions Tear at Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union
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While Russian forces struggle in Ukraine, Moscow is waging trade wars against fellow members of the Eurasian Economic Union, targeting Armenia and Kazakhstan with tariffs and economic sanctions. The widening rifts reveal that the bloc, intended to promote free trade, has become a tool for Russian dominance whenever politically expedient.
While the Russian army is on its heels in Ukraine, the Kremlin is engaging in trade wars with fellow members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
The EAEU is ostensibly supposed to promote free trade among the five member states, not hinder it. But that has never really been the case. Russia has tended to circumvent the spirit of the organization’s intent when politically expedient.
The most prominent example is Moscow’s imposition of a variety of trade bans and barriers on Armenian goods in 2026, moves widely seen as retribution for Yerevan’s efforts to draw closer to the European Union.
The economic pressure has extended to key sectors of Armenia’s economy. For instance, the Russian state-controlled natural gas supplier, Gazprom Armenia, recently imposed an abrupt 10-day cutoff of supplies. And on September 17, Russian National Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu accused the Armenian government of trying, in effect, to expropriate Russian businesses in Armenia, hinting at further punitive measures on Moscow’s part. “Russia is not ready and will not finance Armenia's European integration, and every step in this direction has objective consequences,” the Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
Lately, reports have also started circulating that Kazakhstan and Russia are tangling over automobiles. Kazakhstan imported Russian autos worth $9.8 million during the first half of 2026. Since then, imports have gone to near zero, according to data published by Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics.
The cause of the fall-off, according to Kazakh officials, is Russia’s readjustment in 2024 of “recycling fees” for imported autos. The new five-year schedule of increasing fees is widely seen as a backhanded tariff designed to protect Russia’s auto industry. Russian leader Vladimir Putin reportedly said as much in late 2025 when he stated the higher recycling fees “generated additional revenue for technological development and indirectly supported the domestic auto industry,” the Agentsvo News outlet reported.
Last December, a Russian fee hike raised the overall cost of autos imported from Kazakhstan by an estimated 7 percent.
Kazakh Industry Minister Yersayin Nagaspayev indicated in March that Astana would retaliate if Russia did not reconsider the fee schedule. Kazakh officials followed through on Nagaspayev’s pledge in May, introducing a reciprocal recycling fee structure on Russian and Belarusian imports.
In another, more recent move underscoring the EAEU’s shambolic nature as a vehicle for economic integration, Kazakhstan has banned imports of apples from foreign states, including EAEU members, to protect domestic growers. Kazakh officials took the unusual and dubious step of invoking Article 29 of the EAEU treaty to justify the ban.
Article 29 allows member states to ban imports in cases where the measure is clearly intended to either protect human life, public morals and public order; ensure environmental standards; protect animal and plant species and cultural values; uphold international obligations and/or guarantee the national security of the member state. The treaty provision expressly states that any ban should not “serve as unjustifiable discrimination or a covered restriction on trade.”
By Eurasianet
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The EAEU is ostensibly supposed to promote free trade among the five member states, not hinder it. But that has never really been the case. Russia has tended to circumvent the spirit of the organization’s intent when politically expedient.
The most prominent example is Moscow’s imposition of a variety of trade bans and barriers on Armenian goods in 2026, moves widely seen as retribution for Yerevan’s efforts to draw closer to the European Union.
The economic pressure has extended to key sectors of Armenia’s economy. For instance, the Russian state-controlled natural gas supplier, Gazprom Armenia, recently imposed an abrupt 10-day cutoff of supplies. And on September 17, Russian National Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu accused the Armenian government of trying, in effect, to expropriate Russian businesses in Armenia, hinting at further punitive measures on Moscow’s part. “Russia is not ready and will not finance Armenia's European integration, and every step in this direction has objective consequences,” the Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
Lately, reports have also started circulating that Kazakhstan and Russia are tangling over automobiles. Kazakhstan imported Russian autos worth $9.8 million during the first half of 2026. Since then, imports have gone to near zero, according to data published by Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics.
The cause of the fall-off, according to Kazakh officials, is Russia’s readjustment in 2024 of “recycling fees” for imported autos. The new five-year schedule of increasing fees is widely seen as a backhanded tariff designed to protect Russia’s auto industry. Russian leader Vladimir Putin reportedly said as much in late 2025 when he stated the higher recycling fees “generated additional revenue for technological development and indirectly supported the domestic auto industry,” the Agentsvo News outlet reported.
Last December, a Russian fee hike raised the overall cost of autos imported from Kazakhstan by an estimated 7 percent.
Kazakh Industry Minister Yersayin Nagaspayev indicated in March that Astana would retaliate if Russia did not reconsider the fee schedule. Kazakh officials followed through on Nagaspayev’s pledge in May, introducing a reciprocal recycling fee structure on Russian and Belarusian imports.
In another, more recent move underscoring the EAEU’s shambolic nature as a vehicle for economic integration, Kazakhstan has banned imports of apples from foreign states, including EAEU members, to protect domestic growers. Kazakh officials took the unusual and dubious step of invoking Article 29 of the EAEU treaty to justify the ban.
Article 29 allows member states to ban imports in cases where the measure is clearly intended to either protect human life, public morals and public order; ensure environmental standards; protect animal and plant species and cultural values; uphold international obligations and/or guarantee the national security of the member state. The treaty provision expressly states that any ban should not “serve as unjustifiable discrimination or a covered restriction on trade.”
By Eurasianet
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