Russia’s trade volumes with ‘unfriendly’ countries exceeded $25.5 billion in six months

The share of the Russian Federation’s exports to so-called friendly countries has nearly doubled over the past four years, reaching 85% of the total volume. However, countries classified as ‘unfriendly’ continue to purchase significant amounts of products from Russia, including energy resources, fertilizers, nuclear fuel, metals, fish, and seafood.

This is reported by AgroReview

“In the first half of the year, they spent over $25.5 billion on such purchases,” said the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Mishustin.

Growth of exports to alternative markets

The Russian Federation is actively redirecting its export flows to the markets of the Eurasian Economic Union, the CIS, the BRICS grouping, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Additionally, cooperation with countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America is being strengthened. According to Mishustin, exports to these regions are showing steady growth: if in 2021 their share was 44% of the total volume, by 2024 it exceeded 85%, and this trend continues.

Supplies of energy resources to Syria and increased LNG imports to Japan

Russia plans to send about 750,000 barrels (100,000 tons) of a mixture of Arctic heavy oil ARCO and gas condensate to the Syrian port of Baniyas. Earlier this year, Russia already made its first deliveries of Arctic oil and diesel fuel to Syria.

In September of this year, Japan increased its imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia by 28.5% compared to September 2024, reaching 555,000 tons — the highest figure in the last six months. Overall, since the beginning of the year, Russian LNG supplies to Japan have increased by 4%, totaling 4.287 million tons.