The Russia-Ukraine war has been fought for nearly 15 months, and Western countries have introduced multiple rounds of sanctions against Russia. But did not see much effect.
According to the “New York Times” report on the 15th, since the outbreak of the Russo-Ukraine war, the United States has cooperated with nearly 40 other governments to impose sanctions on Russia, including restricting Moscow’s access to key products such as weapons and computer chips. Airlines and other airlines have also restricted access to aircraft parts.
However, according to a large amount of Russian customs data obtained by The New York Times, US-made aircraft parts worth tens of millions of dollars were still sent to Russian airlines that the Biden administration explicitly announced sanctions last year, including Aeroflot, Aeroflot , Ural Airlines, Siberia Airlines, Utti Airways and Victory Air.
According to the report, data compiled and analyzed by Import Genius, a U.S. trade data aggregator, shows that during an eight-month period in 2022, more than 5,000 aircraft parts worth a total of about 14.4 million U.S. dollars were shipped to Russia.
These items range from a simple screw to a $290,000 Honeywell aircraft starter, all made in the United States. Among them, 8.9 million US dollars of parts and components were manufactured by the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing or had trademark rights, and were sold to Russia through third parties.
The report also said that the data showed that most of the products were shipped to Russia via countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, China, and Maldives, but a small number of goods were sent directly from the United States or Europe, and some of them were even shipped directly to Russian countries sanctioned by the United States. airline.
In this regard, Boeing stated that it has fully complied with the US sanctions and will suspend the provision of parts, maintenance and technical support to Russian customers in early 2022. Aviation supply chain experts told The New York Times that the parts could have come from a variety of sources, such as existing overseas inventories of airlines and maintenance equipment or dealers dealing in scrapped parts, with the aircraft manufacturer not necessarily at fault.
The report mentioned that the U.S. government has launched an investigation into the domestic network of companies that bypass sanctions and export key products to Russia. On May 11, local time, two Russian businessmen were arrested in the United States. They were accused of violating U.S. export controls. Since May last year, they have voluntarily offered U.S.-made parts to at least three Russian airlines.
The report pointed out that the United States and the European Union have been increasing penalties for companies that violate sanctions, but the profits of exporting to Russia are clearly still attractive. James Disalvatore, an associate director at data and analytics firm Kharon, has been watching how Russia is circumventing sanctions. He said that since the Russo-Ukrainian war, the prices of some aircraft parts imported by some Russian airlines have increased by four times or more.
Kevin Wolf, a partner at the law firm Akin Gump, who handled export controls during the Obama administration, said that while the sanctions have played a role in constraining Russia, they “will never stop everything.” Gary Stanley, a trade compliance expert who advises companies in the aerospace industry, admitted that he doesn’t think these sanctions violations are a secret. “How long have we been sanctioning Cuba? How long have we been sanctioning North Korea? How long has Iran been? It never seems to get these guys to stop trading.”
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