The Bell published statistics on the re-export of dual-use goods from Kazakhstan, Turkey and China to Russia.
The media outlet recalls: after the introduction of sanctions on high-tech imports, the Russian Federation quickly managed to reorient its foreign trade flows.
«But the tightening of sanctions pressure from the United States at the end of 2023 led to the fact that Russian importers began to encounter problems when paying for products in foreign banks. The Bell studied in detail the customs statistics of countries with which the Russian Federation actively trades. These data show that in the first quarter of 2024, imports from them to Russia fell by a third. Imports to the Russian Federation decreased the most from Turkey, Hong Kong, Serbia and Kazakhstan,» the media outlet writes.
Imports from China, Russia’s main trading partner, also decreased. Unlike other customs services, the Chinese one has already published information for April. In the first four months of this year, this figure fell by almost 2 percent, despite the fact that in 2023 it grew by 46.9 percent.
According to The Bell, the only exception was Kyrgyzstan — in the first three months of 2024, exports from the republic to the Russian Federation did not fall, but even increased slightly — by 0.73 percent.
An employee of the Carnegie Center in Berlin, Temur Umarov, noted in his commentary to 24.kg news agency that this indicator is explained by two aspects:
- Kyrgyzstan cannot quickly orient itself in the new situation and fully control the activities of its counterparties inside the country;
- Relations with the West are not a priority for the current leadership of the Kyrgyz Republic.
«Otherwise, we would see active state intervention in the process of re-export of dual-use goods to the Russian Federation and a decrease in the percentage at least to the level of its neighbors in the region. Why are they not a priority? Because for Kyrgyzstan the priority is relations with China and Russia, and relations with the West are not that highly valued. And Bishkek does not quite understand how to build a course of cooperation with Western partners,» the expert said.
