Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has come under negative scrutiny. It has come in for harsh criticism from many sides, and even supposed allies do not want to back Russia in the Ukraine war. Several sanctions have now been imposed on Russia by the US, the UK, and the EU, including the exclusion of several Russian banks from the SWIFT system. The U.S. and the U.K. have also imposed a ban on Russian energy products such as crude oil, natural gas, and coal. Eyes are now on the EU to follow fossil fuel sanctions, but the EU may not be able to do so. One is too dependent on Russian energy products.
U.S. President Biden made his comments this week on the periphery of the NATO meeting in Brussels and spoke of a looming food crisis.
“With regard to food shortage, yes we did talk about food shortages, and it’s gonna be real. The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia. It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well,”
said Biden at a press conference during the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium.
The price of sanctions President Biden cites the consequences. For example, Russian products could be cut off from the world market indefinitely. But what does Russia export and who are its biggest trading partners?1
According to the Observation for Economic Complexity, the top exports of Russia are mainly energy products and gold.
Russia exported $74.4 billion worth of crude oil in 2020, making it the second largest crude oil exporter in the world. Most of the crude went to China ($23.8 billion), Netherlands ($9.26 billion), Germany ($6.38 billion, South Korea ($5.03 billion) and Poland ($4.22 billion). The fastest growing export markets for Russian crude oil were Thailand ($756 million) and Denmark ($112 million).
This is followed by gas with a total value of $19.7 billion. The main buyers of Russian gas are Italy ($4.07 billion), Belarus ($2.31 billion), Japan ($2.21 billion), Slovakia ($1.33 billion) and China ($1.28 billion).
Russia’s next major export product is gold, with a total value of $18.7 billion. The main buyers are the United Kingdom ($16.9 billion), Switzerland ($693 million) and Kazakhstan ($424 million), Turkey ($380 million) and India ($96.6 million).
Next on the list is coal with a total value of $14.5 billion, making it the third largest exporting country in the world. The top buyers are China ($1.9 billion), South Korea ($1.6 billion), Japan ($1.53 billion), Turkey ($941 million) and India ($923 million).
Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat worth a total of $10.1 billion, semi-finished iron worth $4.5 billion, non-fillet frozen fish worth $2.58 billion, raw nickel worth $2.26 billion, and crude iron worth $1.34 billion.
Russia’s top exporting countries are China ($49.3 billion), the United Kingdom ($25.3 billion), the Netherlands ($22.5 billion), Belarus ($15.8 billion), and Germany ($14.2 billion).
Article Source:
[1] The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), https://oec.world/en/profile/country/rus