If in 2021, payments from Estonia to Russia amounted to nearly 1.5 billion euros, then in the first nine months of 2023, only 24 million euros were paid to Russia. In 2021, the volume of payments received from Russia was 1.5 billion euros.
The amount of cash declared at the Estonian-Russian border has doubled to nearly 5 million euros in the incoming direction compared to the year 2021. The biggest increase has occurred especially in the declaration of rubles and US dollars. In the outgoing direction, the amount declared at the border in the first nine months of 2023 was the same as in 2022, nearly 3 million euros.
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Serbia and Turkey stand out from the financial sanction reports submitted to the Financial Intelligence Unit. For these countries, the increase in the volume of exports after the start of the war is also significant.
"The fact that cash flows, or direct risks with Russia have decreased, should call all persons with special obligations to be vigilant and know their client. This means that transactions need to be looked at in depth to detect possible evasion of sanctions," said Laura Aus, deputy head of the Financial Intelligence Unit.
More and more reports are submitted to the Financial Intelligence Unit, indicating suspected evasion of sanctions.
"The more complex schemes to hide the actual beneficiary are clearly indications of evading financial sanctions imposed by the European Union," added Laura Aus.
The study of the Financial Intelligence Unit "Changes in money and trade flows and the application of financial sanctions after the start of the full-scale Russian-Ukraine war" was based on the data of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Eesti Pank, the Tax and Customs Board, Statistics Estonia and Estonian credit institutions. This is a follow-up study of the study completed in September 2022.
