Russia trade with the US is up 20% under Trump, Putin claims

Trade between Russia and the U.S. started to grow under Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted after meeting his counterpart in Alaska.

The upward tick comes after a decade of steep decline that set in amid a bitter geopolitical clash over Moscow’s military intervention in neighboring Ukraine.

The latter was met with waves of Western sanctions, especially when it grew into a full-scale invasion, bringing turnover between the two nations to almost negligible levels.

Putin highlights growth in ‘symbolical’ trade with U.S.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin highlighted what sounds like a sizable growth in the otherwise admittedly “symbolical” trade between his country and the United States.

Speaking to reporters after meeting U.S. President Donald Trump in the Alaskan city of Anchorage, his first trip to America in 10 years, Putin remarked:

“By the way, under the new U.S. administration, our bilateral trade started to grow. Although it is still symbolical, there was a 20-percent growth.”

The statement, quoted by the TASS news agency, produced one of the few, more or less concrete details that came out of the five-hour visit of the Russian strongman.

“I would say that we have lots of promising areas for joint work,” Putin laconically pointed out in remarks that came after Trump earlier indicated he is eager to trade.

Speaking aboard Air Force One on Friday, the U.S. head of state was quoted by CNN as saying:

“I noticed [Putin’s] bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that’s good. I like that, because they want to do business, but they’re not doing business until we get the war solved.”

“Russia-U.S. business and investment cooperation clearly has a lot of potential,” Putin later added. The two countries “have a lot to offer each other,” he went on, listing trade, energy, digital industry, high technology, and space exploration among the areas of mutual interest.

“Arctic cooperation also looks relevant, as well as the resumption of interregional ties, particularly between Russia’s Far East and the U.S. West Coast,” Putin elaborated after the meeting, described as a “starting point for resolving the Ukraine issue” and improving relations with the U.S.

Bilateral trade up nearly a third in first half of 2025

On the eve of Putin’s rendezvous with Trump, Russian media also focused attention on the latest increase in economic exchange between the two nuclear powers.

Trade between Russia and the United States increased by almost a third in the first half of the year, compared to the same period of last year, the RIA Novosti news agency unveiled in a report published before the weekend.

Between January and June 2025, turnover increased by 31.3% over the first six months of 2024, according to the data, also quoted by the Prime business news agency and the business daily Vedomosti. U.S. imports were up 32.7%, and exports to the Russian Federation increased by 20.7%.

Nominal figures remain much lower than before the war. “Trade turnover between Russia and the U.S. in 2024 amounted to only $3.5 billion, which is eight times less than the trade volume in 2014, which was $29.2 billion,” Russian economist Nikolai Novik detailed.

At the same time, commenting for RIAN, the analyst from the Institute of World Military Economy and Strategy at the “Higher School of Economics” research institute pointed out:

“However, with the arrival of the administration of the 47th president, the situation began to change, a stable positive trend is noticeable.”

H1 results for 2025 show that trade between Russia and the U.S. increased by almost a third over the same period of 2024, reaching $2.8 billion, the analyst highlighted.

This year, the main Russian exports were platinum, fertilizers and enriched uranium, while imports from the United States included pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

A decade ago, Russia was exporting petroleum products, ferrous metals, aluminum, enriched uranium, and platinum, while importing civilian aircrafts, natural uranium, and passenger cars from America.

Despite the heavy sanctions, Russia imported $22 billion worth of goods into the U.S. in three years since it invaded Ukraine in early 2022, as Cryptopolitan reported in April.

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