By quietly rerouting sanctioned timber through China, Kazakhstan and EU neighbours, Russian suppliers are testing whether Europe’s fractured enforcement can uphold its own wartime embargoes.
Lukáš Prchal
According to findings by Deník N, Russian timber on which the European Union imposed sanctions because of the invasion of Ukraine continues to flow into the Czech Republic. It often masquerades as goods imported from China. Czech authorities are aware of the problem and are investigating some companies.
At the end of last year, Prague authorities received a warning from the Baltic region: according to this alert, Czech companies were still importing timber of Russian origin into the country on a large scale. It was said to concern mainly Siberian larch, which grows primarily in the Russian part of Siberia.
Yet imports of timber from Russia have been under sanctions in the European Union since 2022. Revenues from its sale can help finance Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Tracing Russian timber is not easy.
Unlike machinery, for instance, it is difficult at first glance to tell where it actually comes from – whether from Russia, or, for example, from north‑west China or Mongolia.
However, as Deník N found, Russian traders have been actively trying to get it into Europe. Ideally by routes that local authorities would not be able to block.
“After the start of the war and the introduction of sanctions, we stopped buying Siberian larch. But one of our long‑standing Russian suppliers came to us with an offer to keep supplying it – that in the documents he would claim the timber came from China. For that purpose, he set up companies there. But we refused,” one of the major Czech timber traders told the newsroom under a promise of anonymity.
The importance of the Baltic republics
The decline in imports of timber from Russia, specifically of the popular Siberian larch, is also evident from the database of the Czech Statistical Office. While in the years before the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, roughly 22,000 tonnes of this conifer were shipped annually from Russia to the Czech Republic, after the outbreak of the war imports dropped to zero.
Imports from other destinations, however, have been rising.
For example, the volume of timber imported from China has increased from a few tonnes to hundreds of tonnes. Since 2022, the database has also shown partial deliveries from Serbia and Turkey – countries where larch is not grown and which therefore likely serve only as a transit point for its import into the Czech Republic.
