Between Ukraine and Russia, Kazakhstan’s Chocolate Might Come Out a Winner · Global Voices
Zukhra Iakupbaeva

Rakhat chocolate. Screenshot taken from a YouTube video uploaded by Maxim Bykov.
Kazakh “chocolate patriots” are hoping that Ukraine's loss might be their gain.
When the struggle between Russia and the West over Ukraine was just warming up last summer, Russia unceremoniously elbowed Ukrainian chocolate-maker Roshen out of its domestic market. At the time, the move was widely interpreted as a punishment for Kiev's pledge to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, rather than join Moscow's alternative – the Customs Union.
The ban on Roshen imports was subsequently lifted in November after then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich gave in to Russian pressure and fatefully U-turned on the EU agreement. There was more bad news for Roshen in March this year – the Kremlin shut down the company's Russian factory over a month after the Maidan protest movement toppled Yanukovich and just days after Crimea voted to join Russia and secede from Ukraine in a controversial referendum.
With Roshen's owner Petr Poroshenko recently becoming president of Ukraine and reiterating his endorsement of the pro-EU stance of the Maidan movement, Roshen's foothold in the giant Russian market now appears to be a thing of the past.
But what has all that got to do with Kazakhstan?
As with Roshen [ru] before the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, over 50 percent of Rakhat's exports go [ru] to the giant Russian market. “Every year, Rakhat's chocolate becomes more in demand in Russia,” concluded [ru] Nadezhda Belimenko, the company's marketing director last year. Following Roshen's very public divorce with Russia, Kazakhstan's chocolate patriots are hopeful that share will continue grow.
It is important to know first that the Kazakh people are extremely proud of their national chocolate, produced by locally based confectioner Rakhat. Ahead of the Olympic Games in London in 2012, the Kazakh national boxing team even brought the chocolate as a souvenir from Kazakhstan to share [ru] it with other athletes. As one Kazakh blogger writes [ru]:
Когда едешь в другую страну, то хочется привезти что-то что напоминала бы о ней и символизировала ее. Часто из таких путешествий привозят магниты или кружки с названием городов. Конечно, такое можно купить и у нас, но я предложу Вам вариант поинтереснее. Это шоколад со вкусом патриотизма от компании «Рахат».
When you go to a different country, you want to bring back something that recalls and symbolizes [that country]. Often from these trips you bring back magnets or cups with the names of cities on them. Of course, you can buy these things in our country, too, but I would suggest a more interesting option: the chocolate that tastes of patriotism made by the Rakhat company.
For a republic determined to rid itself of “brand Borat”, Rakhat is something of a coat of arms.
Rakhat's patriotic brands “Astana” and “Kazakhstan”. Screenshot taken from a YouTube video uploaded by Maxim Bykov.
On June 11 a popular article on the Kazakh news platform nur.kz raised [ru] the possibility that industries in Kazakhstan might profit from Russia and Ukraine's sticky relations. Kazakhstan, after all, is a full member of the Russia-backed Customs Union (soon to become the Eurasian Economic Union) that Maidan vociferously opposed and succeeded in rejecting.
But in the comments below the article, Kazakhstanis were mostly interested [ru] in discussing the implications of the Kiev-Moscow schism for Rakhat's chocolate:
Ай молодцы! Завалим Россию Рахатом!!!! Я только за!
Ah great, we will flood Russia with Rakhat [chocolate]!!!! I am for it!
Я когда еду в гости в Россию, всегда везу с собой шоколад “Казахстан” рахатовский и водку “Хаома” пр-ва “КокшеМинВоды”. Ни один шоколад и водка российского производства не сравнятся с нашими. Реально, люди пробуют шоколад и говорят “вкус детства”.
When I go to visit Russia, I always carry with me Rakhat's chocolate “Kazakhstan” and “Khaoma” Kazakh vodka. Neither the chocolate nor the vodka produced in Russia can be compared with ours. When people try Kazakh chocolate they call it “the taste of childhood.”
Roshen has a big assortment [of chocolate] – we are not there yet. We need to expand and AVOID buying Roshen.
In its time the Soviet Union backed the wrong horse. They [implying Russians] thought [Ukrainians] were their fellow Slavs and built many factories producing finished products there. And we were left with nuclear polygons and ore processing plants.
The Koreans bought Rakhat for the Chinese market.
Товарооборот между нашими странами достиг 26,5 млрд долларов. Сейчас значение Казахстана для России все больше и больше растет в силу известных событий в Украине. Россия все больше ориентируется на восток, на Китай. А Казахстан – это естественный мост между Россией и Китаем”.
Trade between [Russia and Kazakhstan] has reached 26.5 billion dollars. Now the value of Kazakhstan to Russia is growing more and more because of the current events in Ukraine. Russia is gradually oriented to the east, to China, and Kazakhstan is a natural bridge between Russia and China.