ECONOMICS
CENTRAL ASIAN ECONOMIES FACE DIFFICULT TIMES IN 2022 The full-scale military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian armed forces and the subsequent series of unprecedented sanctions adopted by Western countries against Russia have led to significant economic consequences not only for the culpable but also for the whole world, especially the former Soviet republics. Among these consequences, it is necessary to distinguish between both negative and positive and shortterm and long-term impacts. Moreover, the effect does
not much depend on whether the country is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) or not (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan). In almost all of these countries, Russia is the leading trading partner and one of the prominent investors. At the end of 2021, the trade turnover with Russia was around 20-30% in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Therefore, the state of the Russian ruble could not but affect the national currencies of these countries.
Table 1. External trade turnover of central Asian countries by the end of 2021
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