In the first quarter of 2017, imports from Russia to the EU increased by 47 percent compared to the same period last year and amounted to 39.3 billion euros. This was announced on Tuesday, May 16, by Eurostat. In turn, the supply of goods from the European Union to Russia increased by 28 percent, to 19.9 billion euros. The surplus of the foreign trade balance of the eurozone in March amounted to 30.9 billion euros against the surplus of 28.2 billion euros a year earlier. In April, the Italian politician, the representative of the League of the North, Sergio Divina, said that since the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions, Italy lost from 3.6 to 4 billion euros. In October 2016, the head of the Center for Strategic Research Alexei Kudrin said that for economic growth in Russia it is necessary to resolve political differences with the countries of the West.

Since March 2014, the member states of the European Union have begun to introduce, in stages, sanctions against Russia. They motivated their actions by the conflict in the east of Ukraine and the reunification of the Crimea with the Russian Federation. These are both individual sanctions and sectoral sanctions (this package of restrictions affected the Russian energy, defense and financial sectors).

Original article: EU increased imports from Russia by 50 percent.