Germany's exports to Russia fell by 37.3% in October 2023 compared to October 2022, the Federal Statistical Office of Germany reported on Nov. 21.
Before the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia was Germany's fifth most important trading partner outside of the European Union, but has since fallen to 18th place.
Nonetheless, the value of Germany's exports to Russia in October still amounted to 600 million euros ($656 million).
The U.S. took first place as the most important country for exports outside of the EU, at 14.3 billion euros ($15.6 billion) in October 2023.
Although exports to Russia have significantly fallen, Germany continues to import large amounts of Russian oil, which in turn adds critical funds to support Russia's war machine.
In addition, Russia's oil exports to India have seen remarkable growth since the full-scale invasion and subsequent introduction of Western sanctions. Once refined, the oil products are no longer treated as Russian and thus can be re-exported back to the EU.
"We in the EU don't buy Russian oil, but we buy the diesel obtained by refining this Russian oil somewhere else," such as in India, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, noted in May 2023.
"This has the effect of circumventing our sanctions and our member states should take measures to deal with this," Borrell said.
There have been other troubling developments within the scope of German exports to Russia.
The German media outlet Der Spiegel reported on Aug. 29 on the case of a German company allegedly exporting electronic components used in the creation of Russian Orlan-10 drones that are then deployed to Ukraine.
The exports violated sanctions, but the shipment had likely circumvented the restrictions by being transported through third-party countries.
Roman Steblivskyi
