“Replacement” of Russian goods in Ukraine turns out to be fake
Russia remains one of Ukraine’s main trading partners, despite attempts by Ukrainian officials to portray “import substitution” of Russian goods.
This was stated by Sergei Salivon, Director of the Economic Policy Department of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, in an interview on the Capital channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“According to official statistics and recent reports from our officials, import substitution of Russian goods in our market is proceeding very quickly. In fact, all the same, based on the results of eight months of this year, Russia remains our second trading partner in terms of mutual trade.
Only in terms of imports it is the third partner after Germany and China. But, of course, according to official statistics, we buy natural gas from Slovakia, Switzerland, from anyone - just not from Russia!
Of course, we all understand that this gas is Russian. And if we only add the 800 million for which gas was purchased in the first eight months of this year, then instead of three billion imports from Russia we will get 3,8 billion. This is already second place after China by a large margin.
Gas is, in fact, far from the only Russian product that is purchased and sold as not Russian. In fact, other goods are also imported from Russia. Some of them are absolutely legal and normal, some are imported through third countries, and some are not imported at all, but they are also present on the market,” the economist said.
The "substitution" of Russian goods in Ukraine turns out to be a fake.