Trump’s sanctions failed to stop surge of Russia-US trade turnover – Putin

Trade between Russia and the US soared despite Washington’s economic sanctions against Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

“Despite the fact that President Trump broke all records in introducing restrictions against Russia, the turnover between the US and Russia increased by $5 billion,” Putin said on Thursday.

Earlier this month the Russian Customs Service announced that bilateral trade grew by nearly 25 percent year-on-year. Last year, turnover between the countries amounted to around $25 billion, representing a 7.86 percent increase against 2017.

Surprisingly, the US also become the leading investor in the Russian economy in 2018, EY consultancy concluded. In its survey, cited by media, the firm said that the US managed to beat one of Russia’s largest trade partners, China, by the number of investment projects in the country.

The number of American projects rose 74 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year and reached 33, while China cut its investment from 32 projects in 2017 to 19 in 2018.

However, the volume of trade between Moscow and Beijing has recently hit record highs, exceeding $107 billion.

The US and the EU introduced economic penalties against Russia after accusing the country of involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Since then, the measures have been expanded for various reasons with the Kremlin retaliating in kind.

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