Not Just Alcohol: Latvia Traded One Billion Euros with Russia Last Year — TV3 0 13

The question is about business ethics. However, the Ministry of Economics does not believe it is worth publicly naming these enterprises again.

The discussion mainly concerns exports - Latvia's imports from Russia from January to November of last year did not even reach 100 million euros. Overall, its volume has decreased over the years, which is primarily explained by Latvia's decision to stop importing natural gas from Russia. However, export figures are surprisingly stable - there are still quite a few enterprises in Latvia that continue to trade with Russia.

What goods are we talking about? The main import items are cast iron, liquefied petroleum gas, and animal feed. Among the main export categories are alcohol (mostly involving so-called re-export, the sale of imported whiskey, wines, and other beverages), clothing, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, footwear, and various leather goods, particularly handbags.

The export could theoretically be defended under the pretext of extracting money from Russia, which, however, receives desired or necessary goods in this process. As for imports, Latvia likely sent the aggressor country approximately the same amount, that is, 100 million euros, which the government decided to allocate for military support to Ukraine in 2025.

The Ministry of Economics urges enterprises to cease cooperation with the aggressor, noting that foreign trade is part of the overall EU policy, and a significant portion of statistical data is generated by logistics enterprises that formally sell goods from other countries to Russia.

Here’s how the parliamentary secretary of the Ministry of Economics, Jurgis Miezainis, expressed himself on this matter: "We cannot physically move Latvia closer to Portugal or Spain. In this case, we cannot do this physically because we have this external border; we are countries on the external border of the European Union."

From a civil position perspective, this data is certainly not encouraging, stated economist Andris Strazds, head of the General Secretariat of the Bank of Latvia, in the TV3.lv podcast Piķis un ģēvelis!: "At the same time, if I look at it as an analyst, countries that were at war with each other in the past also continued to conduct some limited trade. We are not at war with Russia. Of course, there are sanctioned goods, but beyond that - unfortunately, what is not prohibited is permitted."

However, does society not have the right to know which specific enterprises trade with Russia? Guided by the argument that consumers should be armed with such information, the Ministry of Economics previously published a list of such exporters. Then it stopped. The ministry disagrees that consumers are now disarmed because the information is unavailable. It is simply already incomplete.

Miezainis clarifies: "Logistics enterprises are emerging, and in reality, the consumer is not acquiring anything. This is what we have noted. This methodology does not include everything; it is no longer objectively reflected information for consumers about what merchants are engaged in."

So, updating the list is not planned.