Countries That Depend on Russia for Trade

Belarus is by far the most heavily dependent country on Russia for trade, according to Statista’s new Russia Ukraine War Crisis Report, as imports and exports to and from the country are equivalent to nearly half of the country’s GDP. The country with the second-closest trade partnership to Russia is Armenia, with Russian trade at 17 percent of GDP.

According to the report, Russia was only responsible for 1.7 percent of global goods and service exports in 2020. While this sounds small on a global scale, it becomes clear that Russia is a very important partner for Eastern European and Central Asian countries when looking at the impact regionally. Sudan, on the other hand, is the only country on the list from a different region. This is partly due to the fact Moscow and Khartoum have strong bilateral ties, with Russia exporting weapons to Sudan, as reported by the Middle East Institute, alongside wheat, seed oils and petroleum. The two countries have been especially close since 2017, when former president Omar al-Bashir met with Vladimir Putin and they agreed to a Russian naval base in Port Sudan - a move that has been touted as the Kremlin securing a new foothold in the Red Sea.

Looking to the future, the writers of the report state that there is a “high probability” of a recession in Europe and that global growth could be up to 20 or 30 percent lower as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They add that international trade will see a further shift, concluding: “Globally, preexisting deglobalization pressures will likely be exacerbated, with countries seeking a higher degree of self-reliance and companies rebalancing supply chains.”