ICIJ partners in Europe revealed the indirect trade routes used to mask the origins of Russian timber, which continues to flow into the EU despite being banned.
Banned Russian timber is still being imported into the EU despite sanctions to curb timber revenue that helps finance Russia’s war in Ukraine, a new investigation by ICIJ partners in Europe has found.
Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel, ZDF and others analyzed trade data to trace the pathway of banned wood through third countries, including China, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Russia is one of the world’s largest timber exporters, harboring more than a fifth of the world’s forested areas. In 2021, the country was the European Union’s fifth largest trading partner, exporting more than $3 billion worth of timber to the bloc that year, according to the European Commission.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sanctions swiftly followed, including a total ban on Russian timber imports into the EU from July 2022. While direct trade between Russia and the EU was stymied, new global pathways emerged to traffic illicit wood into the bloc.
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