Smugglers bring luxury cars from Europe to Russia despite sanctions - FT
Illustrative photo: smugglers bring luxury cars from Europe to Russia despite sanctions (Getty Images)
Russian smugglers charge tens of thousands of euros to import luxury cars from Europe. This is due to the EU sanctions that hit wealthy Russians after Moscow invaded Ukraine, the Financial Times reports.
In particular, the agency has identified five Russian companies offering to smuggle cars from Europe with engines subject to EU sanctions.
According to the FT, an example of smuggling was found in an ad by Russian importer AvtoImport on the Auto.ru website. It shows an ad for a BMW 530 d M Sport priced at $68,200. The photo indicates that the car is still in Germany. At the same time, as of mid-December, this car was still being sold for 31,900 euros on the website of the German seller Autopartner BGL.
The spokesperson for Autopartner BGL stated that the ads published in Russia had nothing to do with them, confirming that the car was still in Germany and had not been sold at that time.
The FT found more than 50 other luxury cars from 25 different German car dealerships on the Russian website Auto.ru. Russian importers offered these cars at a markup of about 19,000 euros on average. In the ad, the smugglers claimed that the cars would be shipped to a third country.
For example, the FT tracked a black Mercedes-Benz S350. In January 2024, the car was sold to a Kyrgyz taxi company, and in March, the Mercedes-Benz was registered in Moscow as a taxi.
Arthur Kessler, a representative of Kessler & Haag, mentioned that they had a buyer, a payer, and an exporter who possessed the necessary export documents. He questioned what else was required of them, expressing that he was not interested in what happened to the cars after that, stating that he was simply doing business and fulfilling his duties.
The supply of European cars to Russia continues despite the tightening of EU sanctions. According to a sales representative of AvtoImport, cars from Germany are now being transported not through Belarus, but through Türkiye, Georgia, and then to Russia.
He added that exporting cars from Europe had become extremely difficult.
He noted that it is now cheaper and faster to transport premium German cars through South Korea, which has imposed minimal sanctions on Russia.
For about 30,000 rubles, he added, it is possible to reconfigure the car's onboard systems from Korean to Russian.
Sanctions against Russia
The EU has imposed 13 sets of sanctions on Russia and Belarus since the invasion began, and a 14th set is currently being discussed. It may include 21 companies and 19 individuals, as well as new sanctions over the death of Alexei Navalny.
The European Union is preparing to tighten sanctions against Belarus. The new sanctions will be aimed at limiting the loopholes that Russia uses to circumvent restrictions.
