Euronews Business investigates how Russia is using Kyrgyzstan as a key third-party country to maintain trade relations with a variety of European nations. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has seen a wave of sanctions being imposed on Russia in the last couple of years by the EU, UK and the US as well as a number of other international players. However, despite sanctions becoming more numerous and stringent, Russia has continued to find ways to maintain trade with Europe.
The Brookings Institute has used the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s direction of trade data to map out the last few years’ exports being made by several countries to central Asian countries, which are suspected of being transshipments to Russia. For this mapping, the Brookings Institute looked at Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia. Kyrgyzstan in particular, stood out, with a marked surge in global and especially European exports to the country since March 2022, when the Ukraine war was already underway.
Kyrgyzstan, a small mountainous and landlocked country in central Asia has recently shot to global fame as its extensive trade partnership with Russia has come under increasing scrutiny. Robert Khachatryan, the CEO and founder of Freight Right Global Logistics, told Euronews: “Kyrgyzstan has emerged as a critical conduit for Russia to maintain trade with Europe despite ongoing sanctions. “Kyrgyzstan's exports to Russia skyrocketed from $393m (€352.
8m) in 2021 to more than $1.07bn (€0.96.