Austria has reaped great dividends during Russia’s war on Ukraine by historically having a good relationship with Vladimir Putin. Austria has been allowed an exception by the EU to keep buying gas from Gazprom as of very recently and the biggest Western bank operating in Russia right now is Austrian. Raiffeisen Bank is now having problems divesting from Russia, after continuous pressure to do so from US authorities. Blackmailing Ukraine may have also played a part in allowing this bank to keep operating in Russia.
What is very relevant to our story is that Austrian imports and exports to Russia have officially went down since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Austrian imports and exports to Central Asian Countries and other Russian neighbouring countries have actually increased significantly. The significant increase in trade between EU countries, Central Asian States and Turkey is being caused due to sanction-breaking with Russia using these countries to bypass European sanctions and buy European goods. In turn, these European companies may also be using the CACs and other proxies to buy cheap Russian materials and commodities.
According to official figures, in 2023, Austria exported up $3.34 million of wood and $4.36 million of furniture to Russia. Total Austrian exports to Russian in 2023 were $1.4 billion. In 2023, Austria, imported $4.32 million of wood from Russia and imported only $52,000 of furniture. Total Russian imports to Austria in 2023 were $387 million but these do not include gas by Gazprom.
On the other hand, Austrian exports to Kazakhstan soared after the Russian war against Ukraine with furniture exports even hitting up to $14.6 million and wood exports up to $1.42 million. Austrian exports to Turkey also increased significantly with Austrian wood exports to Turkey reaching up to $25.9 million while importing another $4.55 million of wood from Turkey. This analysis can be repeated with other countries used as Russian trading posts including Central Asian Countries, Georgia, Armenia, Serbia and even Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Notice the graph below showing the spike in exports to Russia from Kazakhstan after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The trend for CACs countries and other Russian nieghbours is the same.
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