Russia manages to circumvent sanctions with the help of third countries. The West should consider imposing sanctions on Russian partners if they do not stop the trade with Russia.
This was stated in a commentary to Guildhall by Jukka Kopra, Chairman of the Finland's Parliamentary Defense Committee.
He also emphasized China's role in helping Russia to continue its military aggression.
"Russia seems to be able to circumvent many of them (sanctions). They use third countries to re-export goods. China is helping the Russian defense industry a lot by allowing it to buy dual-use goods, equipment used in the military industry, spare parts, and so on. China does not supply Russia with military equipment, such as ammunition, directly, but they support the Russian military industry by supplying it with important parts, such as microchips and more," he said.
According to the Finnish politician, Russia's partner countries should be persuaded to stop helping the aggressor.
"The sanctions regime does not work or does not work as expected. I think that we should start considering the possibility of imposing sanctions on third countries if they do not change their behavior and do not stop this trade flow into Russia," Jukka Kopra concluded.
Earlier, German Bundestag member from the CDU/CSU party Markus Reichel said that the effect of Western sanctions against Russia was not as powerful as expected, as Russia can still buy goods from third countries. Therefore, he calls on the West to integrate the interests of large third countries, especially India, into the sanctions issue in order to prevent Russia from keeping its economy afloat.