BMW confirms luxury cars were sold to Russian buyers despite EU sanctions

He german manufacturer of automobiles bmw Group has revealed that, despite extensive international and EU sanctions, it has sold more than a hundred luxury cars to Russian buyersas reported by ‘Business Insider’. Sales could be considered a violation of existing EU sanctions against the export of luxury goods to Russia, introduced after the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The bloc has specifically sanctioned the export to Russia of luxury cars, both new and second-hand, with engines larger than 1,900 cubic centimeters, along with all hybrid and electric vehicles. In addition to the EU, from March 2022, The US has also sanctioned the export of luxury vehicles to Russia.

BMW called the sales “irregularities” and has confirmed that employees at its Hannover branch were behind the illegal trade. Consequently, the BMW Group has communicated that He has fired all the staff involved in transactions and that has also paused a series of future deliveries, in an attempt to adjust the company to the current sanctions.

The ‘back door’ of imports and exports with Russia

These sales have highlighted the growing problem of effective implementation of sanctions against Russia. This is mainly due to the ‘grey market’ or ‘back door’ of imports and trade. These are companies, individuals, and even some countries, which pass through several third countriesas Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates and others, to export goods to Russia.

As these countries have not sanctioned Russia and already have strong and long-standing trade relations with Moscow, it is easier to use them as transit points for European goods still being exported to Russia. His geographical proximity to both Europe and Russia has also contributed to this increase in ‘grey imports’.

Russian companies and individuals also have created ghost companies in these third countries to facilitate these export and import transactions. Another way of evade sanctions consists of using ghost fleetswhich are usually made up of old oil tankers from countries like Cameroon and Liberiato export illegally russian oil.

These “backdoor” trade channels have made it increasingly difficult for regulators to track exactly how many products arrive or leave Russia, although direct exports from Europe to Russia have declined relatively in recent years.

These third countries have also been quite reluctant to impose sanctions on Russia, which has further undermined the impact of other international sanctions and led to the EU to have to maintain some increasingly delicate diplomatic relations with them.

In the words of a BMW spokesperson, reported by ‘The Telegraph’: “In recent months, products from several companies have been available for purchase in Russia despite the fact that the companies themselves have acted in accordance with all applicable sanctions. “The BMW Group has a series of measures to prevent these types of imports.”