BMW has sold more than 100 cars to Russians despite sanctions

The sales could be considered a violation of existing EU sanctions against luxury exports to Russia.
German carmaker BMW has revealed that it has sold more than 100 luxury vehicles to Russian buyers despite widespread international sanctions.
The sales could be considered a violation of current EU sanctions against the export of luxury goods to Russia. In addition to the EU, from March 2022. The US is also imposing sanctions on luxury car exports to Russia, Euronews reported.
The bloc is also explicitly sanctioning the export of new and used luxury cars with an engine capacity of more than 1,900 cc, as well as all hybrid and electric vehicles to Russia.
BMW described the sales as "irregularities" and confirmed that employees at its Hanover branch were behind the illegal trade. As a result, the company said it has fired all employees involved in the trades and has also suspended a number of future deliveries in a bid to bring the company into compliance with current sanctions.
These divestments highlighted the growing problem of effective sanctions enforcement against Russia. This is mainly due to imports and 'grey market' trading.
This includes companies, individuals and even some countries going through several third countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, UAE and others to export goods to Russia.
As these countries have not imposed sanctions on Russia and already have stable and long-standing trade relations with Moscow, it has become easier to use them as transit points for European goods still being exported to Russia. Their proximity to Europe and Russia has also contributed to this increase in grey imports.
Russian companies and individuals also set up shell companies in these third countries to facilitate these export and import transactions.
Other ways to evade sanctions include the use of shadow fleets, which typically consist of old oil tankers from countries such as Cameroon and Liberia, to illegally export Russian oil.
These 'backdoor' trade routes make it increasingly difficult for regulators to monitor exactly how much product is reaching or leaving Russia, although direct exports from Europe to Russia have fallen in relative terms over the past few years.
A BMW spokesman said: 'In recent months, products from various companies have been available for purchase in Russia despite the companies themselves acting in compliance with all applicable sanctions. The BMW Group has a number of measures in place to prevent such imports." | BGNES