Nutso Numbers

It shouldn't come as a surprise.

Putin has found a way around the totally warranted sanctions that all anti-repressive economies imposed upon his barbaric unjustified invasion into Ukraine.

Imports from 'friendly' countries - nearby like Turkey and Iran, farther afield like the ʙʀɪᴄs - are one thing. The backdoor that starts to bust the barriers is quite another.

The scale of this shift is huge.

As one recent analyst found, 'Germany’s exports to the small land-locked nation of Kyrgyzstan soared by 2,000pc during the first half of 2023'.

Indeed at that time chief economist at the IIF, Robin Brooks, pointed out, 'Germany records more exports to Kyrgyzstan than the nation records in imports'.

The grey region extends beyond half-dozen Central Asian republics. The Baltic States and Poland appear to be suffering significant leakage too.

The language around these secretive, parallel 'secondary trade routes' seems something we could apply to figures that raise our eyebrow when delving into a business case for our proposal. Perhaps stopping short of the scarcely believable exclamation from one aghast Russo-trade tracker of this post title. But with a keen eye for the validity of amounts as provided by the prospect.

Here's a sample of ten, with inspo from the broadsheet reporting of London's Telegraph;

is this plunge real?
what workarounds are in play?
where's the trail muddy?
has anything evaporated?
where might phantom figures lurk?
are there any hotbeds for diversion?
is there are trickle where there oughtn't be?
does anything look like a dodge?
is there any unexpected surge?
where's the wave headed?

Checking whether some data point really does read as weird could just tip the balance of your case, as well as war.