Despite EU sanctions targeting Russia's wealthy following the invasion of Ukraine, luxury car smuggling has become a thriving business. Russian companies are offering to import vehicles from Europe, often at inflated prices.
Russia n smugglers are charging tens of thousands of euros to import luxury cars from Europe, as EU sanctions in response to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine hit the country’s wealthy. The Financial Times has identified five Russia n companies offering to smuggle cars from Europe with engine sizes sufficient to come under EU sanctions, which were imposed in 2022 as part of a ban on the export of luxury goods to the country.
Pictures for an online advertisement from the Russian importer AvtoImport on the website Auto.ru for a BMW 530 d M Sport priced at Rbs7,200,070 ($68,200) show that the car is still in Germany. As of mid-December, the vehicle was still on sale for €31,900 on the website of German seller Autopartner BGL. “The ads that are running in Russia have nothing to do with us,” said a representative of Autopartner BGL, confirming that the car in question was still in Germany and had not been sold as of mid-December. The FT identified more than 50 luxury cars from 25 different German car dealerships on the Russian website Auto.ru, which Russian importers were offering at an average mark-up of about €19,000. Smugglers often present themselves as intending to ship the car to a third country. The FT has traced a black Mercedes-Benz S350 sold in January 2024 to a Kyrgyz cab company by German car trader Kessler & Haag. The vehicle was registered in March to a Moscow taxi company. “We have a buyer, a payer, an exporter, he has export documents. What else should we do?” said Artur Kessler, a representative of Kessler & Haag. “I don’t want to know what happens to the cars after . . . I just want to run my business, comply with my duties and rights.” The supply of European cars to Russia comes despite the EU boosting sanctions since President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in an effort to choke Moscow’s war machine and provoke dissatisfaction with the regim
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