NEW YORK, August 16. /TASS/. Kazakhstan "won’t blindly follow" Western sanctions against Russia as they may affect domestic companies, the Central Asian republic’s Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin said.

"We will not allow our own producers to be banned from trade," he said in an interview with Bloomberg. In particular, Kazakhstan hasn’t joined a ban on selling ball bearings to Russia, which the West believes may be used in the defense industry, the politician said. A Kazakh plant produces them to a specification that’s traditionally used only in eastern Europe and former Soviet countries, Zhumangarin noted.

That said, Astana will still continue to abide by Western restrictions because the republic "won’t withstand" being targeted by sanctions, the official stressed without specifying secondary or direct restrictions against the Kazakh economy were meant. The local companies added by the US Treasury Department to its sanctions list are in the process of being shut down, Zhumangarin added.

Some of the Western measures against Russia have disproportionately hurt Kazakhstan, he said, adding that Kazakh producers suffered huge losses, while their former Russian clients "switched to domestic suppliers and prospered along with other Russian steelmakers." In the absence of the restrictions, "the profit would stay in Kazakhstan," the official said, adding that instead, now it "goes to those who" the West introduced sanctions against.

On June 5, Zhumangarin said that Kazakh authorities did not support the sanctions policy of the United States and the European Union in respect of Russia and other countries as it strongly affected the republic’s interests, but they had to observe it. A working group is functioning in Kazakhstan, which is holding talks on sanctions matters with US and EU authorities, he noted. The West warns about suggested measures in respect of certain companies in Kazakhstan and Astana endeavors to take preventive measures, the official added.