Despite comprehensive sanctions, internal assessments of trade flows indicate that significant trade in prohibited sensitive goods continues to originate from the bloc itself, with around €450 million ($488 million) worth of high-priority items reaching Russia in the first nine months of the last year, Bloomberg reported.
Following the onset of Russia’s full-scale war, while direct EU trade with Russia in sensitive goods plummeted amid sanctions, exports from the EU to third countries surged, compensating for the shortfall.
Officials, requesting anonymity, revealed that almost a quarter of these items shipped directly from Europe, while the majority entered Russia through third countries. Notable conduits included Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia, China, and neighboring states such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.
The European Commission has not yet responded to Bloomberg’s requests for comment on this matter.
Major manufacturers maintain compliance with sanctions, and EU regulations permit certain exceptions for dual-use goods, which serve both civilian and military functions, under stringent conditions. From the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 until December, over €560 million ($607 million) worth of licenses were granted for such exports, with over €2 billion ($2.2 billion) of requests denied, based on the guidelines that restrict exports to Russian defense and other sensitive sectors, as per Bloomberg.
On 24 February, after holding an online summit, Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries vowed to keep sanctions pressure on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, stating, “We will continue to deprive Russia of revenues to wage its war against Ukraine and hold to account third countries that support Russia’s war.”
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