Sanctions on Russia may not be working, we now know whyEuropean businesses and third countries are actively circumventing sanctions, providing Russia with sanctioned goods and thus helping its war effort.
Berit Lindeman
Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee
Ivar Dale
Norwegian Helsinki Committee's Senior Policy Adviser
5 Jun 2023
On February 25, 2022, a day after Russia undertook a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union introduced unprecedented sanctions against the aggressor. The measures were intended to send a clear signal to Moscow that there would be severe consequences for its actions.
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If the sanctions are not working the way they ought to, it is because we are actively undermining them. A recently released report by Norway-based risk consultancy Corisk reveals how that is done.
Its analysis of customs data from 12 EU countries, Norway, the UK, the US and Japan shows that the circumvention of export sanctions on Russia amounted to an astonishing 8 billion euros ($8.5bn) in 2022.
Of the countries studied, Germany appears to be the largest exporter of sanctioned goods to Russia; the second largest is Lithuania. The two provide half of the Western goods Moscow should not have access to.
The research reveals that European businesses, and especially German ones, use third countries to sell their products to Russia. This is apparent from the analysis of the export data for sanctioned goods, including luxury items such as jewellery and perfumes, typically enjoyed by the elites in Moscow, cutting-edge technology, like advanced semiconductors and quantum computers, machinery and transportation equipment.
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Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/6/5/sanctions-on-russia-may-not-be-working-we-now-know-why