Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate he has made of the value of common high-priority battlefield items re-exported to Russia via Central Asian states in 2026.

The UK is committed to tackling Russian sanctions circumvention, including through Kyrgyzstan. The UK was the first G7 country to sanction the Kremlin-backed A7 network, which Russia uses to circumvent international sanctions on its financial sector. We have since sanctioned further Kyrgyz banks and entities with links to A7, most recently on 8 October 2026.

Following engagement by the UK and international partners, on 27 October the Kyrgyz President's Special Representative on Sanctions Policy publicly stated that Kyrgyzstan's territory, jurisdiction and banking and payment infrastructure must not be used to circumvent sanctions, explicitly naming the A7 network. We welcome this statement and will continue to work with Kyrgyzstan and international partners on the implementation of further actions to tackle sanctions circumvention to ensure it is backed by action. We do not speculate on future designations, as doing so could reduce their impact.

We engage with countries across Central Asia to encourage them to introduce the necessary controls to prevent the re-export of UK-origin Common High Priority goods to Russia, and such controls have been introduced by a range of countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.