Strategies of Russian industrial enterprises’ importing behavior under economic sanctions

The paper utilizes survey data of 2014 and 2018 for the analysis of import as one of the transmission channels of external shocks on the behavior of Russian industrial enterprises. The study aims to reveal strategies of importing under sanctions’ regime and evaluate the potential of import substitution. It demonstrates sustainability of business strategies with regard to importing and maintaining trends of high dependence on import equipment for technological modernization and competitiveness of products. The current scale of import substitution is modest, there is a lack of substantial transformation of geography of importing except radically diminished share of importers from Ukraine. Bi-probit econometric estimations that take into consideration firm’ simultaneous involvement in importing of interim products and equipment demonstrate that import of the former is critically important for the firms exporting to Europe, while the latter is associated with exporting to the members of the Customs’ Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States.