Countries Moscow classes as "friendly" now account for 85% of Russia's foreign trade, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said, as trade with Europe and the US shifts to Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Trade with these partners came to about RUB25 trillion ($299bn) in the first half of 2026 and Russian exports to them rose 15% y/y, Mishustin said in a video address to the Moscow Financial Forum on September 21, Prime reported.

"Trade from Europe and the US is being reoriented to the markets of China, India, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East," he said, according to RIA Novosti.

The share is the government's own figure and cannot be checked independently: Russia stopped publishing detailed customs statistics by partner country in 2022, so the partners' own data are the only outside measure. Those point the same way, with trade with China growing fastest after a dip in 2025.

Non-resource, non-energy exports - the goods other than oil, gas and raw materials that the Kremlin wants to grow - rose 11% in the first half to almost RUB6 trillion ($71bn), Mishustin said, according to Mail.ru Finance. Measured in dollars the picture is weaker: Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov said on September 3 that industrial non-resource, non-energy exports grew only 3% y/y to $58.8bn in the first half, Interfax reported, with fertilisers up 10.4% and pharmaceuticals and cosmetics up 11%.

Russia-China trade rose 25.6% y/y to $134.2bn in the first half, with Russian exports to China up 23.3% at $73.6bn and imports up 28.4% at $60.6bn, The Moscow Times reported, citing Russia's trade mission in China. Growth held up in July, taking seven-month trade up 26.3% to $159.2bn.

That is a sharp rebound from 2025, when bilateral trade fell to $228bn after years of growth. Food is part of the story: Russian agricultural exports to China jumped 44% to $4.9bn in the first half.

Trade with India rose 8% in the first half, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said on August 24, Sputnik India reported.

Closer to home, Kazakhstan has become the third-largest buyer of Russian food and farm goods after China and Turkey, overtaking Belarus. Russia shipped 4.6mn tonnes of agricultural products to Kazakhstan in the first half, 1.4 times more than a year earlier, and export earnings rose 24% to $2.1bn, the Agriculture Ministry's Agroexport centre said on September 15, Interfax reported.

Wheat was the biggest earner at $213mn, 4.3 times more than a year earlier, followed by sugar at $181mn (up 14%), chocolate at $144mn (up 27%), sunflower oil at $135mn (up about 50%) and bread and flour confectionery at $133mn (up 10%). Maize exports rose tenfold.

"Kazakhstan is one of Russia's most important trading partners in the agro-industrial sector," Agroexport head Ilya Ilyushin said, pointing to the absence of customs and financial restrictions between the two Eurasian Economic Union members.

Wheat sales may slow in the second half after Astana banned most wheat imports by road, rail and water for six months from July 27 to protect its own farmers, with exemptions for poultry farms, processors and licensed elevators.