In the first nine months of 2023, Russia imported €450 million worth of sanctioned goods and dual-use technologies produced in the European Union. Almost a quarter of this amount was for products that came to Russia directly from EU countries. The rest Russia mainly imported through intermediaries, Bloomberg reports, citing a European official familiar with internal EU estimates, UNN reports.
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Several EU officials told the agency that the EU is not doing enough to prevent Russia from importing products and technologies used in the military operations in Ukraine.
Bloomberg's interlocutors note that since the outbreak of the war, exports of sanctioned goods from the European Union to third countries, which then supply products to Russia, have increased dramatically. These countries include Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.
Bloomberg believes that EU member states, as well as companies in these countries, are doing too little to prevent sanctions circumvention. Officials, citing EU data, claim that some subsidiaries and subcontractors of European firms operating outside the EU produce sanctioned goods and export them to Russia through third countries.
Addendum Addendum
The EU regularly updates the list of high-priority goods that are prohibited from being supplied to Russia. This list includes dual-use (civilian and military) goods and technologies that Russia can use to create weapons. The list was last updated on February 22.