Russian import statistics in the mirror of world exports

​In this article, the quality of Russian import statistics is assessed by comparing them to corresponding export data from partner countries. While discrepancies between Russian import data and partner country export data have visibly diminished over the past decade, the quality of Russian import statistics is still slightly poorer than those produced by its peers. Discrepancies are more pronounced at the disaggregate level, and both magnitude and sign vary by partner country and product group. Some discrepancies can be explained by misclassification, while some apparently reflect deliberate misreporting.