Oleg Patsulya, a Russian national, and his business partner were arrested in the US for violating sanction regulations, The New York Times reports.
The investigation reveals that Patsulya and his partner whose name remains undisclosed would send sanctioned aircraft parts to Russia in 2022 through a network of companies based in Florida, Turkey and Russia, including expensive brake systems for a Boeing 737, for at least three Russian airlines.
NYT believes there are many other such networks that help Russia circumvent the sanctions. The data, which was compiled and analysed by Import Genius, a US-based trade data aggregator, shows that aircraft parts worth tens of millions of dollars were sent to Russian airlines explicitly facing sanctions, including to Rossiya Airlines, Aeroflot, Ural Airlines, S7 Airlines, Utair Aviation and Pobeda Airlines, NYT says.
In all, it shows that $14.4 million of US-made aircraft parts were sent into Russia within eight months in 2022, including $8.9 million worth of parts that are described as being manufactured or trademarked by the US plane maker Boeing and sold into Russia via third parties, according to NYT.
Most of the products were routed through countries like the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, China and the Maldives, according to the data. But a handful of shipments — including to Rossiya Airlines — were sent directly from the United States or Europe.
A similar way of supplying Russia with aircraft and aircraft parts was earlier described by Lithuania’s LRT whose reporters revealed a network of companies in Italy, Turkey, and Russia that helped transport sanctioned parts by reporting false destinations while cutting deals.
