Towards a dependence with no alternative: Russia’s increased role in the Belarusian economy
Towards a dependence with no alternative: Russia’s increased role in the Belarusian economy

Author(s): Kamil Kłysiński
Subject(s): National Economy, Economic history, Economic policy, International relations/trade
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: Russia; Belarusian economy; Belarusian foreign trade; Belarusian-Russian trade;
Summary/Abstract: Macroeconomic data for the first six months of 2023 confirm Belarus’s steadily increasing dependence on Russia. In the second year of the war, Minsk is paying a high price for its complicity in Russia’s aggression, the regime’s acts of repression targeting its opponents, and its confrontational policy towards the West. This has involved Belarus losing a major portion of its markets in the EU and Ukraine. As a consequence, Belarus’s trade in commodities with the Russian Federation already accounts for around 70% of its total trade; considering that the transport of Belarusian goods (mainly fuels and potash fertilisers) is dependent on transit through Russian ports and railways, Russia’s share in Belarusian exports now exceeds 90%.

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