Trade frictions are intensifying inside the Eurasian Economic Union, with Russia keeping pressure on Armenia while Kazakhstan has started retaliating in a dispute over car imports. The developments are raising fresh doubts about one of the EAEU’s stated core principles: free trade among its five members.
One of the clearest flashpoints involves Armenia. In 2026, Russia imposed broad restrictions on Armenian imports as ties with Yerevan deteriorated over Armenia’s closer relationship with the European Union. The measures have been widely viewed as retaliation for Armenia’s push toward deeper engagement with the EU.
According to the report, the pressure has spread into key parts of Armenia’s economy. State-controlled gas supplier Gazprom Armenia recently imposed an abrupt 10-day supply cutoff. Then, on September 17, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu accused the Armenian government of effectively trying to expropriate Russian businesses in Armenia and hinted at further punitive action. Tass quoted him as saying: “Russia is not ready and will not finance Armenia's European integration, and every step in this direction has objective consequences”.
At the same time, tensions are also rising between Russia and Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan imported $9.8 million worth of Russian automobiles in the first half of 2026, but those imports later fell to almost zero, according to data from Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics.
Kazakh officials say the decline was caused by Russia’s 2024 revision of “recycling fees” on imported vehicles. The five-year schedule of rising fees has been widely seen as a backdoor tariff aimed at shielding Russia’s domestic auto industry. The report notes that Vladimir Putin effectively acknowledged that purpose in late 2025 when he said the higher fees “generated additional revenue for technological development and indirectly supported the domestic auto industry,” according to Agentsvo News.
A fee increase last December was estimated to have raised the total cost of cars imported from Kazakhstan by 7%. In response, Kazakhstan’s Industry Minister Yersayin Nagaspayev said in March that Astana would retaliate unless Moscow reconsidered the policy. In May, Kazakhstan followed through by introducing a reciprocal recycling-fee structure on imports from Russia and Belarus.
Another sign of the EAEU’s integration problems came with Kazakhstan’s temporary ban on apple imports from not only third countries but also fellow EAEU members through December 31. Officials said the move was meant to protect domestic growers and explicitly cited Article 29 of the EAEU treaty as part of the legal basis.
Article 29 allows member states to block imports when the measure is clearly intended to protect human life, public morals and public order, environmental standards, animal and plant species, cultural values, international obligations, or national security. At the same time, the treaty explicitly says such restrictions should not serve as unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised barrier to trade.
Against that backdrop, the report argues that while the Kremlin is occupied with the war in Ukraine, it is also opening trade fronts inside the very economic bloc it helped build, exposing the EAEU’s structural contradictions more clearly than ever.
