Russia bans fruit and veg from Kazakhstan after country refuses to join BRICS

Russian agriculture safety watchdog this week temporarily banned imports of tomatoes, peppers, fresh melons, wheat, flax seeds and lentils from Kazakhstan.

“The decision was made due to the failure of competent authorities in Kazakhstan to take action and in order to ensure the phytosanitary safety of the territory of Russia,” the Rosselkhoznadzor authority said on its website.

The restrictive measure comes shortly after Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy, refused to join BRICS, the bloc of emerging economies of which Russia currently holds the presidency.

“At present and most likely in the foreseeable future, Kazakhstan will refrain from submitting an application to BRICS,” the Kazakh president’s spokesperson, Berik Uali, said in an interview with local news on Wednesday.

Uali added that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has repeatedly spoken out in favor of the United Nations as a “universal and irreplaceable international organization,” and said that the U.N. Security Council should be reformed to take into account interests of regional powers.

Kazakhstan’s decision represents a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is trying to brand BRICS as an alliance of “the global majority” as part of Moscow’s efforts to challenge a dominant West and challenge sanctions related to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that BRICS does not replace the U.N., on the contrary, “it complements, rather than contradicting, its international nature.”

“Kazakhstan is our friend, our strategic partner, our ally. We value our relations. This is the first thing. Therefore, of course, Kazakhstan itself makes decisions on the format of its participation in certain organizations,” said Peskov.

The tensions come ahead of the BRICS summit scheduled to take place from Oct. 22-24 in the Russian city of Kazan, where Tokayev will participate as a guest in an extended meeting next Thursday.