Robin Brooks, a senior fellow in the Global Economics and Development program at the Brookings Institution, has outlined data showing Serbia’s exports to Kyrgyzstan ending up in Russia.
He said they show there has been “crazy” growth since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Serbia’s exports to Kyrgyzstan have skyrocketed by 6200% compared to before Russia invaded Ukraine (black). Of course, none of these goods actually end up in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan’s import data from Serbia shows exactly that NOTHING comes from Serbia (blue). These exports go directly to Russia.
Serbia has not imposed sanctions on Russia for starting the war in Ukraine, as other Western countries have done, excluding Belarus.
On the other hand, Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country, maintains strong ties with Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin even traveled to Kyrgyzstan in October 2023, which was his first trip abroad since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March.
In this year’s meeting with the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, Putin had underlined the importance of Russia as the largest investor in the Kyrgyz economy and said that both sides would further develop cooperation.
“Our country is the main supplier of petroleum products to Kyrgyzstan, we fully supply Kyrgyz consumers with gasoline and diesel,” Putin said at a conference.
“We highly value the Kyrgyz-Russian strategic partnership and our relations as allies,” Japarov said later.
The United States had imposed sanctions on four Kyrgyz companies in July last year for re-exporting electronic components and other technology to Russia.
