European Transshipments Head to Kyrgyzstan

Apart from financial and military support, another part of aiding Ukraine's victory against Russia is the upholding of sanctions by its European allies. However, a report by The Brookings Institution shows that these are potentially skirted by using Central Asian loopholes. Exports from Germany and Italy to countries like Kyrgyzstan, for example, rose suspiciously in the aftermath of Russia's invasion.

Based on IMF data, monthly imports to the Central Asian country from Germany rose by up to 1880 percent in 2024 above the 2020-21 monthly average. For Italy, this number was almost 2,000 percent - and rising. Lithuania and Poland registered similar irregularities in their exports to Kyrgyzstan, but monthly shipments have come down again since peaks in late 2022 and early 2023. While European countries have tried to counterbalance Russia's high economic influence in its neighboring countries like those is Central Asia, Brookings concludes that "this export boom is so large that it cannot conceivably be targeting domestic demand". The article goes on to add that the findings are circumstantial. Similar patterns emerge for German exports to Kazakhstan, Germans and U.S. exports to Georgia and German and Italian exports to Armenia.

While the rise in import from the specific European countries to Kyrgyzstan is large, it is inconsequential for the two countries' global exports as a whole, Brookings writes.