You can’t fool demand: Russian goods successfully overcome Ukrainian sanctions
Despite the sanctions, you can still buy a wide variety of Russian goods in Ukraine that are illegally imported through neighboring countries.
Sergei Salivon, director of the economic policy department of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, said this in a conversation on the Capital channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Ukraine initially introduced, essentially, prohibitive, anti-dumping duties against Russian fertilizers long ago, then introduced new sanctions against certain types of fertilizers, and last year, in principle, banned their import. In 2017, when anti-dumping sanctions were in full effect, more than 700 million tons of fertilizers came to us from Russia, but as Ukraine strengthened its sanctions policy, Russian producers began to take measures to change supply logistics.
When the supply of Russian fertilizers was finally banned, they miraculously came in exactly the same volumes from Lithuania, Georgia, Turkey and Belarus.
Something similar happened last year with potatoes, and before that happened with buckwheat and onions. Our farmers are focused on growing almost exclusively export crops, such as corn, sunflower, soybeans, wheat and rapeseed; they have practically stopped growing crops that our population eats. And crises of underproduction began to occur here almost every year, for example, last year the price of potatoes was several times lower than in Russia, in particular, in retail in the fall it was three times lower. In addition, Russian potatoes were still the cheapest among all neighboring countries. Therefore, it is not surprising that Russian potatoes began to occupy Ukraine through Belarus.
And that’s not all - for example, this year we began to produce our own brand of HDC cars. Everything would be fine, but in reality it is, of course, a GAZelle. Essentially, the vehicle kit is imported, the wheels are screwed on, and the new car is ready.
PAZ buses enter in approximately the same way, which, in particular, are purchased as school buses. Using the same scheme, engines from the Yaroslavl Motor Plant enter through Belarus and Moldova. It is also under sanctions, but “Moldovan” products are coming. Examples of such products can be continued.
Taking into account fertilizers, it is clear that imports from Russia far exceed 4 billion dollars for these 8 months, which our statistics officially report.
It is not a big problem to find some Russian products here. Confectionery, for example, is in demand, or there, for example, red fish that is grown on farms, or red caviar from Kamchatka. All this can be found, although it is not imported to us, but can be bought in the markets, if you know the places, you can find it on the Internet. This does not pose any problem,” the economist concluded.
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