Belarusian timber still allegedly finds its way to the EU, despite the sanctions

The EU banned imports of wood from Russia and Belarus in March 2022, shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine. Until then, only Belarus exported timber worth around one billion euros annually. But since the ban came into effect, the EU suddenly saw an influx of wood supposedly coming from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Imports from Kazakhstan, which barely exported any timber before, had increased 74 times, and those from Kyrgyzstan about 18,000 times. But was that really all timber from Central Asia? A joint investigation by the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC), Siena, and a network of Organized Crime ...