Sehr Gut! Bavaria Leads in Economic Cooperation With Russia Among German Regions

The German region of Bavaria is ranking first in terms of trade and economic cooperation with Russia in comparison with other German federal states, with Bavaria increasing its export to Moscow by four percent in 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Putin met with Bavarian Minister-President Horst Seehofer, who arrived in Moscow within a delegation of 60 German politicians and businesspeople.

"Bavaria is of course ranking first among other German federal states in terms of volume of trade and economic ties with Russia. What is especially interesting and unexpected is the export of Bavarian enterprises to Russia grew by four percent, while the export from other regions and from Germany in general dropped by 4.8 percent," Putin said at a meeting with Seehofer.

Putin expressed hope that the current visit of the German delegation would further promote bilateral ties.

The visit is focused on the discussion of the reinstatement of the commercial ties that suffered from the economic sanctions imposed on Russia on the pretext of the Ukrainian crisis.

In October 2016, Seehofer criticized the restrictions on Russia and recalled that certain areas of the Bavarian economy alone had declined 40 percent due to the restrictive measures.

Before the sanctions were imposed, Germany had been one of Russia's major trade partners, but the two countries' trade turnover in 2015 decreased by about a third, and continued to decline in 2016.