The head of the REC spoke about the restructuring of export routes in Russia

Russia is reducing its dependence on the Strait of Hormuz through new logistics routes. This was announced to Izvestia on June 4 by Veronika Nikishina, General Director of JSC Russian Export Center (REC), at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2026).

"Russia, both before and now, is systematically engaged in making sure that routes are either straightened as much as possible or that extra shoulders are removed, that is, from multimodal transportation, we make transportation as much as possible by one type of transport. And, of course, the so-called rolling out of new routes, that is, the creation of alternative logistics routes. This is also a task that Russia systematically dealt with before the sanctions and before the situation with the Strait of Hormuz," she said.

According to the head of the REC, the development of alternative corridors did not begin because of the current situation around the Strait of Hormuz and not only after the sanctions. She called it part of a long-term strategy that has been implemented for a long time.

As one of the areas of work, Nikishina highlighted the "expansion" of bottlenecks in the current corridors, that is, the expansion of lanes through which products are imported, the expansion of checkpoints, and the acceleration of regulatory procedures, which are mandatory but can reduce costs by speeding up. She also noted the "rollout" of new routes, among which she highlighted the Northern Sea Route, the North—South corridor and other alternative routes, for the development of which the budget is directed.

The General Director of the REC stressed that all these measures should help Russian exports enter new markets and be less dependent on problems at certain points in global logistics.

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On the same day, Nikishina told Izvestia about Russia's ability to maintain export supplies even with disruptions on routes through the Strait of Hormuz. She clarified that this is possible due to diversified logistics.