After Russia launched a massive invasion of Ukraine, the West’s reaction was swift and decisive, with the European Union and the United States unanimously deciding to support Ukraine and punish Russia with economic sanctions.
Two years later, the war continues while the Russian economy remains stable.
“Sanctions are working. And there is hardly any alternative that will work more effectively. But they are not working at full capacity,” Agiya Zagrebelska, a department manager at the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention, told Al Jazeera.
While parts of Russian industry were immediately sanctioned, some important industries were not.
Washington partially blocked Russia’s fishing industry and was partially blocked by the European bloc, which continues to import about $1bn worth of seafood from its aggressive neighbour.
“Is the life of several hundred Ukrainians worth one crab or salmon?” said Zagrebelska.
Since February 2022, when the invasion began, the EU has passed 13 sanctions packages on Russia targeting President Vladimir Putin and people close to him, Russian banks, media companies, political parties and paramilitary groups.
However, European sanctions exclude most food products from Russia.
The bulk of Russia’s billion-dollar seafood business, such as Alaskan pollock or cod, continues to flood EU and US fish markets and restaurants.
The US included Russian seafood in the sanctions in March 2022. And late last year, the government issued an executive order, which takes further steps by banning any seafood of Russian origin that has been included or modified large to another product in a third country.
The new sanctions aim to close loopholes.
Since Russia cannot export its seafood directly to the US, it sends ships to South Korea or China for processing.
According to Stephanie Madsen, the head of the US-based At-Sea Processors Association, Russian fish reaches the borders of the EU and the US ultimately hidden, under the label of another country.
Madsen testified before the US Congress that Russian fish exports also directly funded Moscow’s war in Ukraine. In 2023, the newly added Russian fish export duty and $3.97bn from auctions distributing pollock and crab fishing quotas reportedly went to support Putin’s war effort.
“The majority of American consumers do not support the war in Ukraine,” said Sally Yozell, the director of the environmental security program at the Stimson Center, a think tank.
“I don’t think they feel comfortable if they think that their fish that they eat at home or at [fish] The sandwich they eat for lunch consists of Russian pollock that supports the Russian regime in its war against Ukraine.”
Washing fish
Even with fish sanctions, ensuring that fish does not enter the European or US market can be difficult because seafood is not always easily traceable.
A representative from the Environmental Justice Foundation, a United Kingdom NGO, said that “many EU members do very little verification of seafood imports, which provides opportunities for illegal products, not reported and unregulated fishing to enter the EU market”.
Yozell said, of the US system, that the mandatory catch licenses that show where the fish come from are easily manipulated PDF files.
He added that while the US has been monitoring illegally harvested seafood entering the US market through the Seafood Import Monitoring Program since 2018, the scheme only focuses on 13 species and excludes some of the Russian seafood entering the US market. like pollock. and halibut.
That means that even in the US, where Russian seafood is banned outright, fish served in restaurants or sold in supermarkets can support the Russian economy.
The result is that the EU imports about 740,000 tons of Alaskan pollock, a third of which comes directly from Russia, while another third gets it from China, of which 95 percent is of Russian origin. , said Guus Pastoor, the president of EU Fish. Association of Processors and Traders (AIPCE).
In 2022, Russia increased its fish exports to the EU – despite tensions over the war in Ukraine, Russia’s Kommersant daily reported, citing trade data. Volumes increased by 18 percent that year, and by another 13 percent in 2023, reaching an all-time high.
Before reaching Western markets, many Russian catches stop at the port of Busan in South Korea, one of the largest shipping ports in the world.
Since Moscow invaded Ukraine, the port has seen a significant increase in Russian seafood.
Data obtained for this investigation, in part from the Environmental Justice Foundation, show that the Russian side of the port has become busier than ever.
The numbers are staggering. For example, in 2021, no halibut – a highly prized white-fleshed fish often caught in the Russian/Norwegian Barents Sea – was brought into Busan harbor by Russian vessels.
But in 2023, after the war began, the port imported more than 11,000 tons.
While some of that fish may end up in the South Korean market, halibut exports from Korea to the US and China increased significantly in the same year.
In 2023, South Korea imported 213,000 tons of seafood from Russia, compared to 439,000 in 2022 and 185,000 in 2020.
Korean fish exports to Europe and the US have increased. From 2021 to 2022, frozen herring exports to the US increased by 99 percent, while fillet exports to Germany increased by 541 percent.
For most of the war, as well as being exempt from sanctions, Russian seafood producers enjoyed certain privileges. Some fish come to the EU without duties or at a reduced tariff.
In January 2024, the Council of the European Union ended these perks.
But not everyone is happy about the increased tariffs on Russian fish.
“This, of course, will mean the price [of fish] will increase because these tariffs are calculated on the final price for the consumer,” said Guus Pastoor, the president of the EU Fish Processors and Traders Association. “We understand the political reasons behind this but we think it sets a dangerous precedent.”
Back in Ukraine, Zagrebelska has been working around the clock to campaign for tougher penalties.
“Until 2014, I thought that freedom and fundamental rights were what we had by default. Today, every Ukrainian knows that freedom is something to be earned and defended.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Aktuálně.cz and Kringvarp Føroya in the Faroe Islands with the support of Journalismfund Europe.
