Sitting at Almaty airport, reading the news. “…Due to the devaluation of the Russian ruble, Kazakhstan plans to impose an embargo on the import of some Russian goods and restrict the import of others from Russia. Specifically, this includes oil products, cars, chicken, flour, and confectionery products..”
More than one person in Almaty has told me that crowds of Kazakhs are traveling to Russia for cars, appliances, and other costly goods. They are even organizing shopping tours now.
Example: In Almaty exchange bureaus, rubles are sold for 2.85 tenge (source: valuta.kz). My LG G3 D856 phone here costs from 117500 tenge to 129000 tenge (source: Yandex.Market). The cost of the phone in Moscow – 29900 rubles (same source) or 85215 tenge. So, ordering the phone from Russia is cheaper by 32000 tenge, which is 37% of its price in Russia.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 