The investigators told about the EU’s purchase of Belarusian wood under the guise of Kazakh wood

Belarusian wood, despite EU sanctions, continues to be delivered to EU countries. She can be imported under the guise of Kazakh under false documents. This is stated in the joint investigation of the “Belarusian Investigative Center”, the project of the Ukrainian Service of Radio Liberty “Schemy” and the Polish “Gazeta Vyborchei”.

Journalists discovered a sharp increase in wood exports from Kazakhstan to the EU in 2023. In one hour, the EU bought Kazakh wood for almost 126 million euros. Before the introduction of sanctions on the Belarusian forest in 2022, imports from Kazakhstan were almost zero, the investigators note.

The largest part of supplies goes to the EU through Poland. Last year, imports to this country grew almost fivefold compared to 2022: from 14 to almost 68 million euros. Exports to Latvia increased from 3.5 to 11 million. Lithuania reduced imports, but still kept them at the level of 5.5 million euros.

Journalists got access to the invoices of one of the batches of such goods. The document contained signs of forgery. The representative of the Polish importer told journalists that he did not sign the papers and intends to contact the police.

Moscow and Minsk were the main suppliers of forest products for the EU. The European Union expected to reduce the incomes of the regimes of Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko by billions of euros, by banning the purchase of timber from them. In 2022, investigators released material on the relabeling of Russian and Belarusian production to Central Asian production. The material noted that, according to statistics, the import of wood into the EU from Kazakhstan increased by 74 times after the introduction of sanctions. From Kyrgyzstan – 18 thousand times.