By Jamie White
March 8, 2022
-NEWSWARS
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree blocking certain exports and raw materials from leaving Russia until December 31.
“In order to ensure the safety and smooth functioning of the industry, I decided…To ensure the application of the following special economic measures until December 31, 2022,” the decree says.
The Russian Federation will announce what specific goods and raw material exports will banned in the coming days.
The following table lays out Russia’s top 20 exports (in millions of USD annually):
1 | Crude petroleum | 183,748 |
2 | Refined petroleum | 70,646 |
3 | Natural gas | 42,892 |
4 | Coal | 14,074 |
5 | Semi-Finished Iron | 6,997 |
6 | Aluminium | 6,638 |
7 | Wheat | 6,211 |
8 | Gold | 5,845 |
9 | Diamonds | 4,677 |
10 | Mixed Mineral or Chemical Fertilizers | 4,255 |
11 | Nickel | 4,186 |
12 | Nitrogenous Fertilizers | 3,850 |
13 | Potassic Fertilizers | 3,643 |
14 | Sawn Wood | 3,448 |
15 | Hot-Rolled Iron | 3,273 |
16 | Copper wire | 3,011 |
17 | Synthetic rubber | 2,919 |
18 | Iron ore | 2,813 |
19 | Radioactive Chemicals | 2,583 |
20 | Refined Copper | 2,528 |
This geopolitical development comes after Joe Biden declared on Tuesday a total ban on Russian oil and gas imports to punish Russia over its incursion into Ukraine.
The Kremlin has warned that sanctions against Russian oil and gas would unleash “catastrophic consequences” and lead to $300 a barrel global oil prices.
Wheat prices have skyrocketed to their highest level in 14 years following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is also a top 10 exporter of other grain crops, including barley, corn, rye and oats.
Additionally, Russia is top exporter of fertilizers, and if that material is blocked from the global market, experts warn it could cause a “catastrophic” global food crisis.
“Half the world’s population gets food as a result of fertilizers…and if that’s removed from the field for some crops, [the yield] will drop by 50%,” Svein Tore Holsether, head of agri company Yara International, told the BBC on Tuesday.
Putin’s decree “On the Application of Special Economic Measures in the Sphere of Foreign Economic Activity for the Purpose of Ensuring the Security of the Russian Federation”: