{"id":49151,"date":"2026-04-16T04:41:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/russia-had-to-spend-an-extra-130-billion-to-buy-goods-while-sanctioned-analysts-from-natos-frontline-say\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T04:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:41:21","slug":"russia-had-to-spend-an-extra-130-billion-to-buy-goods-while-sanctioned-analysts-from-natos-frontline-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/russia-had-to-spend-an-extra-130-billion-to-buy-goods-while-sanctioned-analysts-from-natos-frontline-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia had to spend an extra $130 billion to buy goods while sanctioned, analysts from NATO&#8217;s frontline say"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69e0609316ad6f0000dc5013?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Sergey Sobyanin looks at Vladimir Putin as both hold candles.\"\/><figcaption>Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow&#039;s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, attend an Orthodox Easter service.<\/p>\n<p>Mikhail METZEL \/ POOL \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>A new Latvian analysis said sanctions forced Russia to spend an extra $130 billion on buying goods.<\/li>\n<li>It said Russia assesses hundreds of billions of dollars in further economic pain if sanctions continue.<\/li>\n<li>Some of its export markets have also fallen by 50% after four years of sanctions, the report added.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NATO member Latvia&#039;s national security analysts have released a report estimating that Russia has spent an additional $130 billion trying to buy Western goods while being sanctioned.<\/p>\n<p>Published last week by the Constitution Protection Bureau (SAB), the government analysis said the estimate was based on spending from 2022 to 2025, translating to an annual $32.5 billion loss.<\/p>\n<p>That estimated figure is just for imports of Western goods. The international sanctions, imposed after Russia&#039;s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, also mean the country has lost hundreds of billions from its export markets and assets frozen by Western banks.<\/p>\n<p>The Latvian analysts said their report accounted only for the additional cost of goods eventually bought from alternative sources, and excluded cases where Russia couldn&#039;t find substitutes.<\/p>\n<p>They added that intelligence showed that Russian institutions are internally forecasting further losses, &quot;despite Russia&#039;s public announcements claiming its economy is successfully adapting to the impact of the Western sanctions.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Latvia, one of the Baltic States, sits on Russia&#039;s Western flank and has been one of the most outspoken NATO members against the Kremlin, accusing it of running disinformation campaigns and covert operations to destabilize local politics.<\/p>\n<p>Its analysts wrote, without providing details about their sources, that one Russian forecast warned foreign trade would lose another $136 billion by 2030 solely due to Western sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>Another forecast said a continued loss of trade with Europe would account for about $70 billion of these losses, the analysts added.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;SAB assesses these estimates to be an undercount \u2014 the losses are likely much higher,&quot; the report said.<\/p>\n<p>The internal estimates don&#039;t account for the &quot;entire economic spectrum,&quot; it said, such as reduced tax revenues or inflated consumer prices.<\/p>\n<p>A separate internal Russian forecast put its energy sector losses at $216.5 billion over the next five years if &quot;Western pressure increases,&quot; the Latvian report added. The oil and gas industries typically account for about 15-20% of Russia&#039;s GDP and nearly a third of federal revenues.<\/p>\n<p>The report added that Russia has been struggling to find alternative markets for its exports in some major sectors. For example, Russian iron ore exports had been reduced by 40% from 2021 to 2025, and timber and cellulose exports dropped about 50%, the analysts wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;SAB assesses that the lifting of sanctions will significantly increase the threat posed by Russia not only to Ukraine and Europe, but also globally,&quot; the analysts wrote, saying that the Kremlin could be freed up to assist Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin admonished his top economic officials on Wednesday in a rare public rebuke, saying that the national economy had contracted by 1.8% in January and February.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;This is not only below experts and analysts&#039; expectations, but also below the Government&#039;s own forecasts and those of the Central Bank,&quot; Putin said, according to the Kremlin&#039;s public transcript.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow&#039;s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, attend an Orthodox Easter service. Mikhail METZEL \/ POOL \/ AFP via Getty Images A new Latvian analysis said sanctions forced Russia to spend an extra $130 billion on buying goods. It said Russia assesses hundreds of billions of dollars in further economic pain if sanctions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-49151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}