Russia Sanctions Update: Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Thailand, and Malaysia

The Putin regime is feeling the squeeze.

We are getting more and more evidence that the sanctions on Russia are crushing the country’s effective international purchasing power. As I explained in detail last week, without access to manufactured imports, the Russian military won’t be able to replace the massive amounts of equipment it is losing in battle, which should increasingly shift the balance of forces in favor of the Ukrainians.

In my initial summary, I focused on customs data from China and Taiwan. On Monday, I published the first of a series of rolling updates, focusing on South Korea’s plunging exports to Russia. This note takes advantage of several data releases since then. So far, the numbers are remarkably consistent across countries, including those that are officially trying to maintain a position of neutrality in the war: exports to Russia in March 2022 were far lower than in previous months.

More detailed country-by-country analysis below.

Germany