During the transit through the Russian Federation, more than $1 billion in EU-sanctioned goods “disappeared”.

During the transit through Russia, sanctioned goods from the European Union worth over $1 billion, which were being transported to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, mysteriously “disappeared”. This is reported by the Financial Times.

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Trade data indicate that only about half of dual-use goods (that is, those that can be used in the military complex) sent from the EU actually reached their declared destinations. We are talking about goods worth $2 billion.

European officials believe that these goods could have entered Russia directly from the EU under the pretext that they were transiting to countries neighboring the aggressor. A disproportionately large share of such exports was sent from the EU to the Baltic countries bordering Russia and Belarus.

Inconsistencies in trade records indicate that Russia circumvented sanctions with the help of intermediaries or suppliers who indicated false destinations in EU customs declarations. Thus, Moscow could receive critically important European products, such as aviation components, optical equipment, gas turbines, and radio broadcasting equipment.

Read also: Russia continues gold trade despite Western sanctions — Bloomberg

“Where else could it go? Why did these countries suddenly need these products exactly now? Who most needs these goods in the region? It’s obvious that it’s Russia,” said Estonian Sanctions Minister Erka Kodar.

There are some categories of goods, for example, gas turbines, soldering irons, radio equipment, among which almost all transit did not reach the final destination, disappeared somewhere in the middle of Russia.

“Some disagreements in global trade statistics are not unusual, but they go beyond typical minor errors,” noted Elina Rybakova, a senior researcher at the American Peterson Institute for International Economics.

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Source: Ministry of Finance

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