In the first three months of this year, Russia provided more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to France than in the same period last year, surpassing other EU countries, which means that Paris has paid more than 600 million euros to the Kremlin for gas, with Sweden and Greece in second and third place after France, Politico said.
Paris's performance has made some EU member states uncomfortable, with an anonymous EU member diplomat saying that "France cannot afford to pay them a lot of money while saying we have to treat Russia harshly." ”
We have not yet seen an explanation from the French government for this, but it is certain that the EU can try to sanction Russia economically and reduce its share of the EU market, but it will be difficult to completely sever economic ties with Russia, after all, it is not a world war yet.
In fact, all EU countries, with the exception of France, maintain more or less economic ties with Russia, including Poland and the Baltic states. Finnish Economy Minister Willer Lederman explained that "the import ban on Russia is catastrophic, and good sanctions are against the target of the sanction and not against the imposer of the sanction, which is why Finland did not issue an import ban, otherwise, Finland and Europe will suffer more losses than Russia, and there is no point in shooting yourself in the foot." "At the moment, Finland is still importing fertilizers and nickel from Russia.
There is some truth in the words of the Finnish economy minister, and at present, Russia still has an advantage in many aspects. According to a report by the Washington Post, Russian titanium alloy producer VSMPO-AVISMA has been selling titanium to the West since the outbreak of the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, with an annual export value of more than $300 million, and most of this titanium is bought by countries that support Ukraine, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and the Kremlin also knows this, and even knows that many of these exported titanium alloys are used in the military field.
Titanium has a large number of uses in aerospace and other fields, and even has some irreplaceability, and there are a large number of titanium alloys on the American-made M777 ultra-light howitzers currently used by the Ukrainian army, and the source of these titanium alloys is very likely to be Russia. In fact, not to mention that now, even in the Cold War era, the West is getting a large amount of titanium alloys from the Soviet Union, and there are a large number of titanium alloys produced in the USSR on the SR-71 "Blackbird" reconnaissance aircraft, which the Soviet Territorial Defense Forces had almost no way to do.
This is not to say that Russia is irreplaceable in titanium production, but at present, it is more economically advantageous to buy titanium alloys from Russia, and it takes a lot of economic cost and time for the West to establish relevant alternative industries. Moreover, sanctions against Russia, especially on the Russian energy industry, will deal a bigger blow to the Kremlin than imports of goods such as titanium.
According to Bloomberg, the "trade boom" in countries such as Russia and Turkey is slowing due to the "rapid expansion" of Western sanctions lists. Kutru Calavlirioglu, president of the Turkish Machinery Exporters Association, said that trade in machinery sales between Turkey and Russia has surged due to sanctions, but this year it is expected to decrease by $1 billion, compared to $3 billion last year.
According to data released by the Turkish Ministry of Trade, in the first quarter of this year, Turkey's exports to Russia have fallen by 33.7% year-on-year. India and other countries are also reducing business with Russia, and under the deterrence of the US government's "secondary sanctions" and diplomatic pressure, many trading partners vital to the Russian economy are taking the initiative to take measures, including stopping financial exchanges with Russia in certain fields, especially in the electronics sector, in other words, some traders can sell electronic components to Russian customers, but they cannot receive payment.
The power of "secondary sanctions" is beyond most people's imagination, and any entity or individual, whether intentionally or unintentionally, who has aided Russia's war in Ukraine, will be sanctioned as long as it is determined by the U.S. Treasury Department. As for the United States and other Western countries, it is more direct, with the US Treasury Department just issuing a statement banning the import of aluminum, copper and nickel of Russian origin (produced before April 13 without restrictions), further cracking down on the Kremlin's purse strings.