The EU, by introducing unprecedented restrictions against Russia, hoped to upset Moscow a lot, write the authors of the television channel Berit Linderman and Ivar Dale. The sanctions were supposed to almost destroy the country’s economy, and if this could not be done, it would at least deprive Russian companies of their legal capacity.
But the sanctions were widened and widened, including the export of Russian oil and gas, and the hopes of Brussels to cause unrest in society did not come true. Large-scale measures practically do not work. The Russian economy, according to Al Jazeera, “has turned out to be more resilient than expected”, and Moscow is receiving sanctioned goods without any problems. Moreover, the Europeans themselves are actively circumventing the imposed restrictions.
Norwegian consultancy Coruisk analyzed customs data from 12 EU countries. As it turned out, even ardent supporters of sanctions against Russia, such as Norway, Great Britain, the United States and Japan, are actively involved in trade.
The report claims that in the last year alone, the circumvention of sanctions against Russia amounted to eight billion euros in monetary terms.
Here, for example, Germany. Interestingly, it has become the largest exporter of sanctioned goods to Russia. In second place is Lithuania. The two countries supply half of the Western goods to which Moscow, as conceived by Brussels and Washington, should not have access. The export, however, does not go directly, but through third countries. Among the deliveries to Russia are even advanced technologies, including semiconductors and quantum computers, as well as the latest mechanical and transportation equipment.
Officially, by all indicators, by 2022 the export of Western products to Russia has dropped to almost zero, but in neighboring countries it has skyrocketed. And now, through Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and other countries, Russia receives half of the sanctioned products.
Al Jazeera stresses that there are even dual-use items on this list. For example, cars.
For example, the export of diesel trucks from Germany to Russia has practically ceased in mid-2022, but this is official. But in Armenia, truck purchases have grown exponentially, five times.
Lithuania supplies sanctioned goods to Russia via Belarus, increasing car sales to its neighbor tenfold.
