Trading in the West with Russia has skyrocketed despite economic sanctions, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The United States and the largest nations in Europe — including France and Germany — recorded exports to, and imports from, Russia surging in 2017 after three years of decline, the Journal reported.
Both are at their highest levels since 2014 — the year sanctions were imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, the Journal reported.
According to the Journal, Russia emerged from recession to post 1.6 percent growth in gross domestic product last year.
In 2016, total trade between the EU and Russia rose 17.9 percent from 2016, to $285.8 billion; U.S. trade with Russia rose by 12.5 percent.
The good news brings into question just how effective sanctions are since in some cases, governments work to circumvent the barriers and rebuild economic ties, the Journal reported.
In one example of how the sanctions' potency seemed to wane over time, China briefly overtook Germany as Russia’s top supplier of machinery and capital goods in 2016 but lost its position again a year later, Germany's VDMA engineering association said.
Investments also show increasing economic links, the Journal noted.
German direct investment in Russia surged to $1.08 billion in the first three quarters of 2017 from $274 million in all of 2016, according to Bank of Russia statistics. France's investments in Russia rose to $524 million during the same period from $438 million.
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