Moscow has calculated and decided that Ukraine need not be afraid of new Russian sanctions

A direct ban on the supply of a number of Russian goods to Ukraine, introduced on Thursday, will affect about 1,2% of the goods that Ukraine imports from there, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

This follows from data from the Federal Customs Service (FCS), which was studied by the RBC agency.

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With Russia’s total exports to Ukraine amounting to $9,5 billion at the end of 2018, prohibited categories account for only $118,4 million.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced new sanctions against Ukraine on April 18. “A few days ago, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine took another unfriendly step towards our country - it expanded the list of Russian goods prohibited for import into Ukraine. In these conditions, we are forced to defend our interests and take retaliatory measures,” he said.

The decree on restrictions, which Medvedev signed, contains three key provisions:

Expansion of the ban on the import of certain Ukrainian goods into Russia. The ban was introduced in December 2018 and affected Ukrainian food products (wheat, bread, fish, chocolate, beer, wine, etc.), equipment (gas turbines, steam boilers, diesel electric generators, etc.), some raw materials goods. Imports for these items at the end of 2017 amounted to $468,9 million, 10% of the total. As Medvedev said on Thursday, the new ban will affect products worth $250 million. The expanded list includes paper and cardboard, shoes, women's clothing, pipes, ropes, fasteners, bulldozers, etc.

A ban “on the export of Russian oil and petroleum products to Ukraine,” as Medvedev formulated it. For the first time, Russia is introducing a ban on the export of its goods to Ukraine. Before this, Kyiv banned Russian imports, and Moscow banned Ukrainian imports.

Complicating the export of certain categories of goods to Ukraine, including coal, gasoline and diesel fuel. Now, in order to supply it to Ukraine, you will have to obtain a special permit from the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. The new order will come into force on July 1.

In fact, a direct ban on supplies affects the minimum volume of petroleum products, journalists note. In their list of the commodity nomenclature of foreign economic activity, the selected categories are far from the largest. In addition, in one of them (oil and oil products obtained from bituminous rocks, except crude ones) seizures of $1,98 billion were made. For this entire category, exports to Ukraine amounted to more than $2 billion last year; the ban applies only to supplies equivalent $46 million

In comparison with all supplies of Russian oil to Ukraine, the export of prohibited “oil” items is 2,9%, or $118 million out of $4 billion.

On the other hand, a significant part of exports falls under administrative control. The cost of goods, the supply of which to Ukraine will now have to be coordinated with the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, last year reached $3,9 billion, that is, 41% of total exports. This volume includes such large foreign trade commodity categories as coal, coke, and diesel fuel.

According to Russian experts, the decisions taken do not indicate a desire to cut off the export of Russian goods to Ukraine, but rather the creation of a negotiating position for bargaining with the new Ukrainian government.