On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed an export ban on more than 200 essential items to protect the Russian economy in retaliation to Western sanctions over the Ukraine war.
In a statement, Moscow said that the export ban will last until the end of 2022 and applies to critical equipment from various sectors—including, health, automobile, and agriculture—that were previously imported from Russia. The Kremlin called it a much-required measure that ensures the stability of Russian markets.
Russia today temporarily banned export of wheat and sugar even to EEU countries.
— Mark Nalbandian (@econmarkn) March 10, 2022
As a side note: In 2019 93.2% of Armenia’s wheat import came from Russia and 5.61% came from Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/8FdqrX5PUS
During a cabinet meeting led by Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that the government has readied about 20 draft laws that collectively aim to reduce the impact of Western sanctions by steadying the financial sector and introducing support mechanisms. Furthermore, he suggested that the government will introduce “external management” at any foreign-owned facility that stops operations.
Additionally, Mishustin said that the government is specifically focussing on the agriculture industry to protect Russia’s food security amid the ongoing sowing season. To this end, the government has introduced a debt repayment scheme for agricultural producers whose sowing was disrupted by Western sanctions. The Kremlin also plans to heavily reduce regulations to ease operations.
A “you didn’t fire me, I resigned” moment, Putin bans export of products and raw materials until Dec 31. Might be subject to some details/exceptions, but this should push all key raw material prices further up.
— Emre Akcakmak (@akcakmak) March 8, 2022
Here’s Russia’s *exports* as % of production of key raw materials👇 pic.twitter.com/AcGtv9yUX0
During his speech, Putin criticised the Western countries for taking “hostile” actions towards Russia and blaming Moscow for higher oil and gas prices. He stressed that Russia is fulfilling its energy commitments to Europe, noting that even the Ukrainian gas transit system has been operating at full capacity.
Putin also called out the United States (US) for talking to Venezuela and Iran, saying they have been subjected to “illegitimate sanctions.”
Russia's crude oil exports halted by other countries have surged the prices of oil by 43% in 2022 so far, amid the Russia-Ukraine war, and that is the core reason for it.
— Market Inside (@MarketinsideUk) March 8, 2022
#russiaexports #russiacrudeoil #crudeoilexports #russiaukrainewar #ukraineexports #oilexports #oil pic.twitter.com/kBLeRZoH6a
According to Reuters, Moscow also plans to terminate food and grain exports of sugar, wheat, meslin, rye, barley, and corn to members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)—comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan—until August 31.
The move mirrors a decision taken earlier this week by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who introduced an export ban on essential food supplies and grains to avert a “humanitarian crisis” and stabilise the domestic market.
Russia accounts for 18% of the world’s wheat exports and Ukraine contributes 11% of the world’s total grains. Given that Western sanctions have made Russia the most sanctioned country in the world, the current export bans could lead to a major disruption of global food supply, especially for countries such as Egypt and Turkey, which are heavily reliant on wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine.
Russian export structure is very simple. Russia doesn't really export much complex stuff. Meanwhile extractive businesses are overwhelmingly controlled by Putin's friends. So he naturally cares about exports (of natural resources) a lot. That's a forage base of his close circle pic.twitter.com/GrEMP9nTbn
— Kamil Galeev (@kamilkazani) March 9, 2022