Russia has imported at least 1,000 luxury cars worth a total of €93 million via Belarus in breach of EU sanctions since the start of the war in Ukraine, a joint investigation by independent media outlets Verstka and Buro with contributions from the Belarusian hacker collective Cyber Partisans revealed on Monday.
Many leading car manufacturers boycotted Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, and the EU and US have both imposed sanctions on luxury items, meaning that cars valued at more than €50,000 can no longer be imported to the country. However, no such ban applies to Belarus.
The team behind the investigation cited customs declarations confirming the delivery of some 1,000 cars from Belarus to Russia. Most were brand new, expensive models from Germany, the US, the UK and Italy, and included brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Lamborghini, and Volvo.
There are 30 companies currently supplying premium cars from Belarus to Russia. Some have ties to the entourage of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
In October, journalists from Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, revealed that Finland had become a transit route for the export of luxury cars to Russia using tracking devices to determine the route the cars took once across the border.