Dutch companies appear to be circumventing the European sanctions imposed on Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine by exporting their products to Russia through Turkey. The flow of Dutch

goods to Russia has declined since the sanctions took effect, but Dutch exports to Turkey have experienced a remarkable surge. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported that in the second quarter of this year, 869 million euros worth of Dutch sanctioned goods found their way to Turkey, marking a 91 percent increase from two years prior.

The sanctions imposed by the European Union following Russia's invasion of Ukraine have prohibited the export of items such as microchips, transportation equipment, machinery, and drones from EU member states to Russia.

Dutch exports to Russia amounted to 285 million euros in the second quarter of 2023, which is 63 percent lower than the levels seen two years before the invasion. In contrast, exports of Dutch products to Turkey and the Eurasian Economic Union Countries (EEU+)—including Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan—grew by 42 and 75 percent, respectively.

In the second quarter of 2021, Russia ranked as the second-largest buyer of Dutch office machines such as word processors, calculators, and cash registers, accounting for 10 percent of exports valued at 19.3 million euros. These office machines are subject to sanctions. However, two years later, Dutch exports of office machines to Russia had ceased. During the same period, Turkey's share of Dutch office machine exports surged from 3.5 percent to 10 percent, with an export value of 15 million euros.

Trucks and buses are also on the list of sanctioned items. In the second quarter of 2021, Russia had a 1.8 percent share of Dutch truck and bus exports, valued at around 11 million euros. Similarly, exports to Russia in this category stopped, but exports to Turkey increased from 0.5 percent in the second quarter of 2021 to 3 percent in the second quarter of this year.

CBS reported that "Trucks and buses were also exported more to the EEU+ countries, with the export value in the second quarter of 2023 being over 35 times higher than two years earlier." Dutch exports of trucks and buses to Turkey and EEU+ countries amounted to 7 million and 23 million euros, respectively, in the second quarter of this year. Photo by Alf van Beem, Wikimedia commons.