NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakhstan's industry minister says he sees no obstacles for a popular Russian motorcycle producer's plans announced last week to move its business to Kazakhstan after international sanctions over Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine hampered operations.
While many companies and their owners in Russia have been hit by sanctions over the war in Ukraine, Qaiyrbek Oskenbaev told reporters in Nur-Sultan on April 26 that the Ural Motorcycles company, currently based in the Russian city of Irbit, is free from any international measures and can move production to the Central Asian nation without any impediments.
"Any company that is free of any kind of restrictions is welcome in our country," Oskenbaev said.
Ural Motorcycles' CEO Ilya Khait said on April 18 that his company was setting up a new assembly line in Kazakhstan's northern city of Petropavl where the popular motorcycles, including three-wheelers with sidecars, will start being produced in the coming days.
Khait said a shortage of components that used to be imported to Russia before the sanctions, as well as a Western ban on importing Russian-made equipment, were behind the move.
Ural Motorcycles' products are popular across the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. The company sells its products in the United States as well.
Otembaev said Ural Motorcycles will use facilities at Kazakhstan’s Kaztekhmash machine-building company.
He added that several other companies in Russia have expressed an interest in moving their businesses to Kazakhstan.