Russia’s Turnover with its Leading Partner in Europe is $44.6 Billion. How to Reach Out to Berlin via Warsaw and Prague

Germany remains Russia’s leading business partner in Europe. In 2015, bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to $44.6 billion ($24.6 billion in exports and $19.9 billion in imports, with a surplus of $4.7 billion for Russia).

Is it a lot?

It is six times Russia’s trade with India ($7.63 billion) and 35 times its trade with Iran ($1.24 billion).

We are used to the idea that it is vital for both Russia and Germany to develop economic cooperation. However, in 2015, bilateral trade between Poland and Germany reached $100 billion (88.5 billion euros).

Poland became Germany’s seventh-largest trade partner, with Russia sitting in 13^th. The structure of trade relations between Berlin and Warsaw is much more complex and diverse than that of Berlin and Moscow.

Trade between Germany and the Czech Republic reached $85 billion (76 billion euros) last year, i.e. the Czech Republic was worth twice as much to Germany as Russia.

If this is the case now, any attempts to build new relationships with Berlin via Poland and the Czech Republic (as well as Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) will inevitably be met with clearly political and purely economic difficulties.

Data

— Russian exporters

— Destatis: Ranking of Germany's trading partners in foreign trade