{"id":873589,"date":"2025-09-17T01:12:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T06:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/the-us-and-europe-are-still-doing-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-business-with-russia-despite-years-of-war\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T01:12:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T06:12:54","slug":"the-us-and-europe-are-still-doing-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-business-with-russia-despite-years-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/the-us-and-europe-are-still-doing-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-business-with-russia-despite-years-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The US and Europe are still doing billions of dollars\u2019 worth of business with Russia despite years of war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US President Donald Trump is threatening an additional 25% tariff on India as well as higher tariffs on other countries that buy Russian oil<\/a>, in an attempt to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine<\/a>. But the United States and Europe themselves are still doing billions of dollars in trade with Russia \u2013 although that\u2019s a fraction of the trade that took place before the war.<\/p>\n

India has argued that it\u2019s being unfairly targeted with the tariff increase, calling it \u201cunjustified\u201d given that other nations also do business with Moscow.<\/p>\n

Trade between Russia and the US has fallen by about 90% since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but last year, the US still imported $3 billion worth of goods from Russia, according to the latest data<\/a> from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis<\/a> (BEA) and Census Bureau.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the European Union \u2013 which has been the Americans\u2019 partner in sanctions against Russia \u2013 imported $41.9 billion (36 billion euros) of goods from Russia in 2024, data from the bloc\u2019s statistics agency shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s significant, but I think the more significant thing is how quickly the EU adjusted to reduce their dependency on Russia,\u201d said Kimberly Donovan, director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council, a DC-based think tank. \u201cThey\u2019re making huge strides to further reduce how much they\u2019re getting from (Russia).\u201d<\/p>\n

EU imports from Russia dropped by 86% between the first quarters of 2022 and 2025, according to Eurostat data.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that there is a lot of opportunity for the US and even the EU to increase our trade with countries like Canada and get the products that we need from them,\u201d Donovan added. \u201cThat\u2019s where the trade wars and the negotiations over tariffs are really throwing things for a loop and are reducing our ability to be strategic in how we\u2019re approaching the Russia problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Trump prepares to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska Friday, a top US official warned that India could see more tariffs coming their way if the talks don\u2019t go well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve put secondary tariffs on the Indians for buying Russian oil. And I can see if things don\u2019t go well, then sanctions or secondary tariffs could go up,\u201d US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told<\/a> Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

These are the areas where economic ties with Russia remain the strongest, for the US and Europe respectively.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Fertilizer: <\/strong>The US imported $927 million worth of fertilizer in the first half of this year, US Census Bureau data shows. Last year, fertilizer imports from Russia totaled more than $1 billion. The US particularly relies on Russia for imports of three types of chemical fertilizers: urea, urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) and potassium chloride muriate of potash, also called potash.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless the US sanctions Russian fertilizer imports, as it does with Belarusian potash, this (level of trade) is likely to continue,\u201d said Allan Pickett, head of fertilizer analysis at S&P Global Commodity Insights. \u201cRussia remains one of the most important global fertilizer suppliers and the influence of it has not diminished since 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUrea and potash could be readily sourced from elsewhere, although with potash it would further increase US dependence on Canada, which currently has an interesting trade dynamic,\u201d Pickett added.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration recently hiked tariffs on Canada<\/a> to a minimum of 35% \u2013unless goods are compliant with the terms of the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement \u2013 escalating ongoing trade tensions<\/a> with its northern neighbor.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Palladium:<\/strong> Although palladium imports from Russia have reduced significantly since 2021, data shows that the US still imported $878 million worth of the metal in 2024 and $594 million worth in 2025, through June. The silvery metal is used in various electronic and industrial products and it\u2019s a key component in the catalytic converters of cars.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Uranium and plutonium: <\/strong>The US has imported $755 million worth of uranium and plutonium from Russia so far this year, according to Census data through June. It imported $624 million worth of those commodities from Russia in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Oil:<\/strong> Russia was the largest supplier of petroleum to the European Union prior to Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The EU has since imposed a ban on maritime Russian oil imports, as well as refined oil products, like diesel. As a result, oil imports to Europe fell to $1.72 billion (1.48 billion euros) for the first quarter of 2025, down from $16.4 billion (14.06 billion euros) in the same quarter of 2021, according to the most recent data from Eurostat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The top European importers of Russian fossil fuels in July 2025 were Hungary, France, Slovakia, Belgium and Spain, according to an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an international research organization. Hungary and Slovakia accounted for the vast majority of crude oil imports, according to the analysis<\/a>, while the others import mostly liquefied natural gas.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Natural gas: <\/strong>The value of natural gas imports from Russia actually increased in the last four years as a result of price increases, growing to $5.23 billion (4.49 billion euros) in the first quarter of 2025, Eurostat data shows<\/a>. However, the EU has slightly reduced Russia\u2019s market share of liquefied natural gas imports since 2021 \u2013 from 22% down to 19% in 2025 \u2013 while also greatly increasing the US market share.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Iron and steel:<\/strong> Russia\u2019s share of iron and steel imports in the EU has dropped sharply. Iron and steel imports amounted to $850 million (730 million euros) in the first quarter of 2025 \u2013 about half of what they were in the same quarter in 2021, according to Eurostat.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Fertilizer: <\/strong>Sanctions and import duties have not hit the fertilizer industry, and as a result, European imports of Russian fertilizer have changed very little since 2021. In the first quarter of 2025, EU countries imported $640 million (550 million euros) of Russian fertilizer, data shows.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nickel: <\/strong>The EU has diversified imports to rely more on nickel from the United States, Norway, the United Kingdom and Canada. Still, the bloc imported $300 million (260 million euros) worth of nickel from Russia in the first quarter of 2025. Nickel is primarily used to make stainless steel and other alloy steels, as well as batteries.<\/p>\n

Beyond imports and exports of commodities, many Western companies remain entrenched in Russia.<\/p>\n

Some notable American-based holdouts continue to operate in Russia, including top 100 companies, according to lists compiled by the Yale School of Management<\/a> and the Kyiv School of Economics Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dozens of European businesses, including consumer-facing brands, retailers and software companies, have also remained in Russia.<\/p>\n

The amount of tax revenue that Western companies generate for the Kremlin is relatively small, but analysts say the companies that remain have allowed aspects of normal life to continue for the Russian population.<\/p>\n

Corporate exits serve to bring the war closer to the Russian people and confront their \u201ccomplacency,\u201d as well as make it more difficult for Putin to paint a picture of a well-functioning economy, said Yale School of Management\u2019s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, whose large team of researchers keeps track of which companies have left.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an imploding market \u2013 it was never an economic superpower to start with \u2013 which is just a lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of bravado on the part of Putin to try to create an aura of something bigger,\u201d Sonnenfeld told CNN.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s and China\u2019s energy imports<\/h2>\n

In contrast to the reduction in trade with Moscow seen in the United States and EU, India imported $67 billion worth of goods from Russia in 2024, according to data aggregated by the United Nations<\/a>. Roughly $53 billion worth of that was petroleum oils and crude oil.<\/p>\n

Before the full-scale war, in 2021, India imported $8.7 billion worth of goods from Russia.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s imports of Russian oil and gas have skyrocketed since before the war began. Russian oil now makes up 36% of the Indian market, according to Vortexa, an energy data firm, meaning it imports more crude oil from Russia than from anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\n

China has also ramped up purchases of Russian crude oil following Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Its price fell after Western countries sharply scaled back their imports of Russian fuel. Russia now accounts for 13.5% of China\u2019s crude imports, according to Vortexa.<\/p>\n

China imported roughly $130 billion in Russian goods in 2024, including $62.6 billion of petroleum oils and crude, the UN-aggregated data shows.<\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Anna Cooban contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump is threatening an additional 25% tariff on India as well as higher tariffs on other countries that buy Russian oil, in an attempt to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine. But the United States and Europe themselves are still doing billions of dollars in trade with Russia \u2013 although<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":873590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[310,3098],"tags":[7983,9985],"class_list":["post-873589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-doing","category-europe","tag-doing","tag-europe"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}