Page 90 - RusRPTApr23

Russia and Tajikistan reached a trade turnover of around $1.5bn in 2022 -
a record-breaking figure over the past 20 years, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Thursday.
The volume of imports from Russia to Italy decreased by 80% y/y in February, according to the data the Italian National Institute of Statistics published on trade with countries outside the European Union. Italy’s imports from China (-14.2%) and the United States (-9.7%) also decreased. In the meantime, imports from OPEC countries (+41.0%) and the UK (+34.7%) increased the most. Overall, Italy's imports fell 6.8% y/y in February, "driven by lower purchases of energy carriers (-12.8%), intermediate goods (-8.9%) and consumer durables (-14.9%)", notes the institute. However, it is indicated that exports in February 2023 increased by 17.0%. On an annual basis, exports of Italian goods and services increased to China (+131.4%), Turkey (+26.2%) and the US (+18.2%).
The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) expects the agreement on free trade with Iran signed this January to allow doubling mutual trade turnover. EEC Spokeswoman Iya Malkina told reporters that "the temporary agreement enforced in October 2019 allowed doubling our trade to around $6bn, while the new agreement, as we suggest, will allow at least doubling it again," when asked about the prospects of a full-fledged free trade agreement between the EAEU and Iran. Respective talks ended in February, Malkina noted, adding that the agreements reached with EAEU nations are currently being fine-tuned.
● Products
Since the invasion started about a year ago, Russia has made more than $315 billion in revenue from fossil fuel exports around the world, with nearly half ($149 billion) coming from EU nations, according to estimates from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
The EU’s largest economy, Germany, is the second-largest importer of Russian fossil fuels, largely due to its natural gas imports worth more than $12 billion alone.
Turkey, a member of NATO but not of the EU, closely follows Germany as the third-largest importer of Russian fossil fuels since the invasion. The country is likely to overtake Germany soon, as not being part of the EU means it isn’t affected by the bloc’s Russian import bans put in place over the last year.
Although more than half of the top 20 fossil fuel importing nations are from the EU, nations from the bloc and the rest of Europe have been curtailing their imports as bans and price caps on Russian coal imports, crude oil seaborne shipments, and petroleum product imports have come into effect.
The EU’s bans and price caps have resulted in a decline of daily fossil fuel revenues from the bloc of nearly 85%, falling from their March 2022 peak of $774 million per day to $119 million as of February 22nd, 2023.
90 RUSSIA Country Report Russia April 2023 www.intellinews.com