- The Taliban is in talks with Moscow about trading Russian crude oil products for Afghan produce.
- Iran and India have also discussed barter deals with heavily sanctioned Russia.
- It’s unclear if the Kremlin has entered into any such deals, but Russia has experience in barter trade.
The Taliban regime in Afghanistan is discussing a deal with Moscow that could involve trading Russian crude oil products in exchange for raisins, minerals, and medicinal herbs, according to RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency.
Nuriddin Azizi, the Taliban’s minister of industry and trade, was in Moscow for trade discussions last week.
“Since Russia is a friendly country to us, we have come to reach an agreement on the import of Russian oil and oil products,” Azizi told RIA Novosti on Friday. He said Afghanistan plans to import 1 million tons of gas and diesel.
“We can supply hundreds of tons of such products to Russia. For example, prices for medicinal herbs are now very high, and Russia needs such raw materials for medicine,” he said, per the news agency.
It’s unclear if the Kremlin has entered into such a deal with the Taliban, but Azizi said the Taliban can pay for Russian goods with money instead if the plan doesn’t pan out.
The Taliban isn’t the first to offer up barter trade with Russia, which has been hit with sweeping sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Some Russian banks have been disconnected from the SWIFT banking system, which is used for international trade payments.
Heavily sanctioned Iran has also discussed a barter trade arrangement with Moscow, Alexander Novak, the deputy prime minister of Russia, said in May, Reuters reported, citing Russian state TV. Iranian deputy foreign minister Mehdi Safari told the country’s Etemad newspaper that barter is one way the country conducts trading activities amid heavy sanctions.
The Indian government, too, was working on a barter trade system to import fertilizers from Russia, the Times of India reported in May, citing unnamed sources, including a government official.
It’s unclear if Russia has entered into any such trade arrangements. However, analysts from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a London-based think tank, noted in May that Russia “may well have to resort to barter trade” with non-sanctioning countries as restrictions pile on. That’s because “financing, insuring, and executing trade deals between Russia and non-sanctioning countries has become significantly more costly” due to the sanctions, the analysts wrote.
Barter trade isn’t foreign to Russia. It was practiced during the Soviet era and also in the years following the bloc’s collapse.
“Afghanistan and Russia have historical experience in mutual barter trade,” the Taliban’s Azizi told RIA Novosti. “We would like to focus on the supply of food and other essential products, including petroleum products, and we are consulting with Russian partners.”
