Every day, more than 20 container loads of Russian birch plywood arrive in the EU via third countries – even today, more than two and a half years after the first sanctions were imposed. The methods used by producing and trading companies, as well as by European importers, are equally obvious as they are obscure and both legally and morally reprehensible. Despite the slump in total imports of Russian wood products, the trade in birch plywood continues to flourish, as a recently published undercover investigation shows.
