Photo: https://utro-novosti.ru/
Six EU countries began to increase trade with Russia despite the sanctions. In June of this year, trade rebounded to the level of February, i.e., before Russia's EIA in Ukraine.
In early summer, exports of goods to Russia from seven European countries began to grow and exceeded February figures. According to RIA Novosti, Latvia, which increased exports by 67%, is in the lead. It is followed by Slovenia (37%) and Croatia (28%). Bulgaria, Estonia, Cyprus and Luxembourg increased their supplies of various goods to Russia.
It should be admitted that our country has also increased sales of goods. In this case, imports in 10 countries exceeded the level recorded at the end of winter. Most of all, as media reports, goods were exported to Slovenia, where the level at the end of winter was increased in 4.4 times. Exports to Croatia and the Czech Republic exceeded winter levels at the beginning of summer by 2.7 and 2.0 times, respectively. More Russian goods were also sent to Malta, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Estonia and Bulgaria.
These data show that such countries as Slovenia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia and Cyprus increased both imports and exports of their goods to Russia by early summer.
The biggest drop in supplies was recorded in April. In this month, 18 EU countries reduced their indicators, but in May the minimum level was recorded only in four countries, namely Greece, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden. As reported by RIA Novosti, the European countries are stepping up trade with Russia now. In this case each country acts in its own way. In the first half of the year, when sanctions packages followed one after another against Russia, 13 EU countries did not reduce imports from Russia in monetary terms.
In terms of exports of goods from the EU in the first half of the year, as reported by RIA Novosti, it fell by a third and dropped to 28.4 billion euros, while the figure reached 41.1 billion euros in 2021. Imports from Russia during this time increased by 83% and amounted to 121.7 billion euros.
After Russia's special military operation in Ukraine began, the EU began imposing sanctions on Moscow. The most significant restrictions were adopted in the spring. It was then that various types of equipment, technological products, as well as luxury items were banned from being delivered to Russia, including perfumes whose value exceeded 300 euros.
Trade relations between the countries were also affected by the refusal of some European countries to switch to paying in rubles for Russian gas, and in response Gazprom simply stopped supplying them with raw materials.
The European Commission (EC), as reported by Izvestia, 11 October, published materials stating that after the introduction of the 8th package of sanctions against Moscow, the total cost of restrictions for the European Union countries will be about 123 billion euros in total. The EC materials also noted that the sanctions lead to a sharp reduction in trade between the EU countries and Russia. If we compare it with the same indicators of 2021, the reduction will amount to more than 40%.
According to Hubert Fuchs, an MP from the Austrian Freedom Party, as reported by Izvestia, the anti-Russian sanctions are a “deadly blow” not only to the Austrian economy, but to the entire European Union. Sanctions were imposed against Russia, imports of many goods from our country were banned, but Western politicians miscalculated, did not take into account many circumstances, and the restrictions they imposed turned into economic problems for Western countries. The prices of gasoline and utilities skyrocketed in the EU countries. Now many families in Europe are faced with the question of what to buy first: familiar foodstuffs at the expense of saving water, electricity and gas. Not only that, the production of many goods and products in factories is being reduced because of higher energy prices, and there is the question of suspending, closing or transferring production to other countries. The EU economies, which were based on cheap Russian energy resources, are now suffering losses due to expensive liquefied natural gas supplied by the United States.