EU Reports Increase in Trade Flows from Armenia to Russia via Central Asia

The European Union has stated that it observes a suspicious increase in trade flows from the EU to Armenia and subsequently from Armenia to Russia. This was announced by European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni while presenting the European Commission's proposals for reforming the EU Customs Union.

“The differences in customs systems of individual EU countries allow those who wish to circumvent our sanctions to exploit the gaps present in separate systems. There are specific methods to bypass sanctions through trade. Yesterday, we presented data to the EU Economic and Financial Council showing a significant increase in exports from the EU to several countries—Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan—and a comparable increase in exports from these countries to Russia,” Paolo Gentiloni stated.