On April 23, 2026, the Council of the European Union approved the 20th package of sanctions against Russia — the most sweeping in two years, as European officials themselves characterized it. The package, whose adoption had been stalled since February due to vetoes by Hungary and Slovakia, adds 120 new listings to sanction lists, introduces sweeping restrictions in the energy sector, and, for the first time in the history of European sanctions policy, activates a special anti-circumvention mechanism against a specific country — Kyrgyzstan.
The Kyrgyz Republic has become the first country against which the EU has triggered the anti-circumvention tool, introduced into Brussels' arsenal in 2023.
Effective immediately, European companies are barred from supplying Kyrgyzstan with CNC (computer numerical control) metalworking machine tools and telecommunications equipment — including routers, modems, and radio devices.
According to EU data, it is precisely this category of goods that has seen a dramatic surge in traffic: in the first ten months of 2025, imports of high-risk items from the EU to Kyrgyzstan grew by nearly 800% compared to pre-war levels.
Beyond trade restrictions, two Kyrgyz banks — Keremet Bank and Capital Bank of Central Asia — and the cryptocurrency platform TengriCoin, linked to the A7A5 stablecoin, have been added to the sanctions list. It should be noted that Keremet Bank and Capital Bank had previously been sanctioned by the United Kingdom and the United States, and in November 2025 Capital Bank also came under Canadian restrictions — making their inclusion on the European list a continuation of coordinated international pressure rather than a unilateral Brussels initiative.
Also subject to restrictions are two Uzbek enterprises: the Ferghana Chemical Plant (Fargona Kimyo Zavodi LLC) and Raw Materials Cellulose LLC. According to EU data, both companies supplied cotton cellulose to Russian gunpowder factories in Kazan, Perm, and Tambov, where it was used in ammunition production. Both firms are linked to entrepreneur Rustam Muminov, who was placed under EU individual sanctions in October 2024 and added to Ukrainian sanctions lists in May 2025.
