Russia imports at least 3,600 luxury cars despite sanctions
Pravda Ukraine
As of July 2023, Russia had imported at least 3,600 luxury cars since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, even though the G7 countries imposed restrictions on exporting such goods to the Russian Federation in early March 2022.
Source: analysis of Import Genius data; Ukrainska Pravdaʼs investigation
Ukrainska Pravdaʼs investigation has shown that Russian billionaires are overpaying for “logistical inconveniences”. However, Kremlin oligarchs can still afford it despite sanctions and restrictions.
The largest number of imported cars was Mercedes, with 764 imported, of which 49 were Mercedes Maybachs.
With a small margin, BMWs are in second place with 718 cars imported, most notably the latest models of 2023, for example, X5 and X7.
More than 300 Range Rovers and 119 Land Cruisers also entered Russia from 24 February 2022 to 31 July 2023. Lamborghini, Bentley, Cadillac, Porsche and Ferrari cars were imported to Russia in smaller volumes.
Luxury Western-produced cars were imported to Russia from Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Korea, and others.
Notably, a significant part of customs declarations does not contain data on the vehicle’s VIN codes, and in some places, even the model or brand of the car is not indicated.
The analysis considered Russia’s import of such cars:
1) a car with an internal combustion engine with compression ignition (diesel) with a cylinder capacity of more than 2,500 cubic centimetres;
2) cars with spark ignition with a cylinder capacity of more than 3,000 cubic centimetres (gasoline).
The supply of these cars from March 2022 is prohibited by the sanctions of the G7 countries, in particular the USA and the EU. At first, luxury cars were interpreted as those that cost more than US$50,000. Later, the classification was carried out by measuring the volume of cylinders. Thus, import of cars with internal combustion engines with a cylinder capacity of more than 1,900 cubic centimetres has been prohibited under sanctions. This means the list of illegal luxury cars that were imported into the Russian Federation is much larger.
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