Russian metallurgists distort competition in Europe, so the world must strengthen sanctions more actively, - expert
Date: 2025-02-07 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: ECONOMY
This is one of the reasons why the EU has not yet imposed tough sanctions against metal from the Russian Federation, on which it earns 3.5 billion euros even now. This was stated by the president of the OP "Ukrmetallurgprom" Alexander Kalenkov at the panel discussion "Strengthening economic pressure will help the Trump administration end Russia's war against Ukraine", which was held by the American analytical center Hudson Institute.
"The EU has decided to ban the import of iron ore and slabs. And then it introduced exceptions and transition periods that were proposed by several countries, such as Italy, Belgium, Denmark and the Czech Republic. Why? Because Russian companies own assets in these countries, and they threaten to stop production and fire workers if they are not allowed to import Russian metal products. In fact, this creates a conflict of interest, and this is a very sad situation - because the Russians are actually holding the employees of these companies hostage when they talk to officials," Kalenkov emphasized.
At the same time, the expert emphasized, Russian enterprises in the EU are simply manipulating governments - because in fact they can buy the necessary metal products either from European manufacturers or from Ukraine - whose products are also present on the European market.
Another important aspect of the problem is that the Russians distort competition in the European metallurgical market, because they have access to colossally cheap energy resources - gas and electricity, which in the Russian Federation are ten times cheaper than in the EU. Therefore, both Europeans and Ukrainians are interested in strengthening sanctions against Russian oligarchs and the metallurgical industry, which is the third most powerful in the Russian Federation in producing money to finance the Kremlin's military machine.
"Such sanctions can be personal - against Russian oligarchs, as well as against Russian plants in the EU, and this can be done in a way that is safe for the workers of these assets. We have a good example when the oligarch Abramovich sold the Chelsea football club. Perhaps such a solution exists for plants as well," Kalenkov clarified.
Let us recall that earlier, the Ukrainian Presidential Commissioner for Sanctions Policy Vladislav Vlasyuk stated that in 2023, Russia exported mining and metallurgical complex (MMC) products to the EU worth €3 billion, and for the first 9 months of 2024 - another €2.1 billion. Therefore, sanction exemptions for some groups of Russian goods, especially metallurgical products, should be canceled.
He recalled that MMC enterprises directly support the Russian military-industrial complex. For example, the Russian NLMK Group, owned by the oligarch Lisin, which supplies metallurgical slabs to the EU, is at the same time a monopoly producer in Russia of special electrical steel, which is critically important for the Russian defense industry.
