Russia imports foreign cars via China, bypassing Western sanctions - Reuters
Kyiv • UNN
Tens of thousands of cars are being exported from China to Russia through 'grey market' schemes, circumventing sanctions. Some of these vehicles are manufactured in China, while others are imported from third countries.
Tens of thousands of cars are exported from China to Russia through "gray market" schemes, which often circumvent sanctions imposed by Western and Asian governments, as well as car manufacturers' commitments to leave the Russian market. This is reported by Reuters, writes UNN.
Details
According to the publication, tens of thousands of cars are exported to the Russian Federation through so-called gray market schemes. Some cars are produced in China at joint ventures of international companies, while others are brought there from third countries and then transported to Russia.
A common practice has become the registration of new cars as used. Dealers in China register cars as sold on the domestic market, after which they reclassify them and export them.
"This makes it easier to export," explained Zhang Ai Jun, a former car company exporter in Sichuan province.
According to the Russian analytical company Autostat, imports from China are taking an increasingly larger share among all Western and Japanese cars registered in the Russian Federation. Since 2023, the number of such cars produced in China has more than doubled. In 2025, they will account for almost half of the approximately 130,000 cars of brands from countries that have imposed sanctions.
In total, since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, more than 700,000 foreign brand cars from countries that have officially restricted cooperation with the Russian Federation have been sold in Russia.
Dmitry Zazulin, director of the Moscow car dealership "Panavto-Zapad", admitted that demand for Western brands remains.
"However, at the moment we can only import them through parallel channels," he noted.
Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen stated that they have banned the export of cars to Russia and are trying to prevent unauthorized deliveries. At the same time, the companies admitted that controlling the further movement of cars is difficult.
BMW emphasized that if cars enter the Russian Federation through gray imports, adding that "this happens outside our sphere of influence - and also clearly against our will."
Sanctions law expert Sebastian Bennink noted that it is almost impossible to completely block such schemes.
"There are so many ways to circumvent sanctions that it's almost impossible to prevent certain cars from entering Russia," he said.
Thus, despite formal restrictions, the Russian market continues to have access to foreign cars through complex chains of intermediaries and parallel imports.