---
title: "Sanctions evasion through third countries (research idea)"
description: "Sanctions appear on 85 recent papers, with 23 in the last quarter against about 20 per quarter before, and 35 of them carry a Russia, enforcement or effectiveness keyword. Trade data show exports from Europe to Central Asia and the Caucasus surging after 2022. How much of the sanctioned trade simply took a detour, and what stops it?"
url: https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/sanctions-evasion-through-third-countries
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/sanctions-evasion-through-third-countries.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
date: "2026-10-23"
updated: "2026-10-23"
status: "seed"
tags: ["economics", "trade", "politics"]
keywords: ["economic sanctions", "sanctions", "financial sanctions", "sanctions enforcement"]
---

# Sanctions evasion through third countries

Sanctions appear on 85 recent papers, with 23 in the last quarter against about 20 per quarter before, and 35 of them carry a Russia, enforcement or effectiveness keyword. Trade data show exports from Europe to Central Asia and the Caucasus surging after 2022. How much of the sanctioned trade simply took a detour, and what stops it?

## What prompted this

Since October 2025, 85 papers carry a sanctions keyword (45 in economics journals, 21 in finance, 11 in management): "sanctions" on 18, "economic sanctions" on 15, "financial sanctions" on 11, "trade sanctions" on 9, "sanctions enforcement" on 6. Thirty-five of the 85 also carry an evasion, circumvention, third-country, re-export, Russia, enforcement or effectiveness keyword.

## Questions

- How much of the fall in direct exports of sanctioned goods to Russia reappears as exports to its neighbours, product by product?
- Which firms do the rerouting: new shell exporters, or existing distributors?
- Did secondary sanctions on banks in third countries in 2024 cut the detours, and at what cost to legitimate trade?

## Data that could help

Monthly bilateral trade data by product (UN Comtrade, Eurostat), customs records with exporter identities where available, and the dates of sanctions packages.

## Next step

Compare the growth of EU exports of dual-use goods to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and the UAE with Russia's imports of the same goods since 2022.

## Related research activity

*The keywords this note follows, in the tracked finance, accounting, economics, management, operations research and AI journals as of 2026-10-26*

| Keyword | Papers, last 30 days | Rank | Papers per month, Oct 23 – Oct 26* | Papers, last 36 months |
|---|---:|---:|---|---:|
| economic sanctions | 1 | #2881 | 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 4, 2, 2, 4, 3, 0, 2, 1, 2, 1, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 3, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 2, 2, 5, 1, 0, 1 | 44 |
| sanctions | 0 | – | 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 4, 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1, 0, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 0, 2, 2, 0, 0, 3, 3, 0, 0 | 42 |
| financial sanctions | 1 | #2881 | 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1 | 16 |
| sanctions enforcement | 0 | – | 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0 | 6 |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Sanctions evasion through third countries. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/sanctions-evasion-through-third-countries

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-ideas-sanctions-evasion-through-third-countries,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Sanctions evasion through third countries},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/sanctions-evasion-through-third-countries}},
  urldate = {2026-10-23},
  note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).