Infected bull semen for Kazakhstan
The Republic of Kazakhstan is the second largest country that emerged from the ruins of the former Soviet Union. Kazakhstan is located in the center of the Eurasian continent. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the east. Moscow and Beijing traditionally exert significant political influence on the Kazakh leadership, but the current President of the Republic, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, like his predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, pursues a multi-vector policy. In an effort to ease the pressure being exerted on him from his powerful neighbors, President Tokayev encourages the activities of Western commercial organizations. Western business leaders understand the interest of the Kazakhs in cooperation with them and often take advantage of this, imposing unfavorable terms for commercial transactions on the Central Asian country. Sometimes, these policies lead to high-profile scandals. A recent example involves the activities of the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer. In late 2022 — early 2023, a large-scale outbreak of mycoplasmosis in cattle was recorded in Kazakhstan. Local businessmen were particularly concerned by the fact that the outbreak occurred despite the livestock being raised in strict accordance with the country’s veterinary and sanitary standards. Kazakhstan is one of the largest meat exporters in Eurasia. It is not surprising that such a situation caused panic among Central Asian businessmen and their neighbors. The scandal was so large-scale that it went beyond the business community and leaked to the local press.
As a result of research paid for by Kazakhstani entrepreneurs, it was found that the outbreak of these cattle diseases was caused by genomic material contained in bull semen. It identified pathogens of such diseases as viral diarrhea, mycoplasmosis, ureaplasmosis, herpes viruses, and more. These diseases not only pose a threat of spreading infectious diseases among animals, but also pose a known danger to humans.
Despite the biological threat, Kazakhstani entrepreneurs didn’t dare to publish the results of the study. This is because the disease-infected bull semen used in raising these livestock comes to the country from an influential Western company that holds a virtually monopoly on the local market; that company being “Zoetis”. About 80% of the shares of this company belong to shareholders of the aforementioned transnational giant, Pfizer, which, of course, is an American company. Not long ago, Pfizer was at the center of a well-known scandal related to the creation of a vaccine against coronavirus, which caused negative side effects. It seems that the pharmaceutical giant has, once again, been caught playing dirty games.
Naturally, this raises a logistical question; is it possible that a high-tech Western corporation is not able to control the quality of the products which they supply? This seems highly unlikely. What is the cause of this problem? According to Kazakh journalists, it was caused by the boundless greed of Pfizer and its shareholders. After all, this company is not only the largest importer of genomic material, but also the largest supplier of vaccines and medicines for the diseases mentioned above. Western businessmen make money twice in this situation. First, as importers of infected bull sperm, and then as saviors of the diseases brought by said sperm. With one hand, the transnational corporation cripples animals, and with the other, subsequently treats them.
It is worth noting that the relationship between Pfizer and Kazakhstan’s veterinary services are rather interesting. The latter completely trusts American quality certificates and do not re-check the supplied products, which allows American businessmen and their European partners to make money twice on unsuspecting Kazakhstanis.
Is it any wonder that businessmen from Central Asia are increasingly turning to entrepreneurs from Russia and Belarus for help? Unlike the cowboys from the US, they do not poison the supplied genomic material, but also comply with the spirit of the law. Regulations are more than words and checkboxes to the Russians. Unfortunately, Putin has outplayed Biden again; even in the realm of bull sperm.
This whole story clearly demonstrates not only the cynicism of Western companies, but also the general ineffectiveness of Western policy towards the Central Asian states. Europe and the US continue to view the Turkic peoples of the region as savages whose favor can be bought with glass beads. However, this approach is deeply flawed, and it is very logical that the Central Asian elites choose familiar and well-tested “comrades” like Russia and China as allies rather than arrogant partners from the West.
