In 2023 alone, Russian airlines were able to obtain $171 million worth of aircraft parts for foreign planes despite Western sanctions, Russian media reports.
The source obtained classified customs statistics, which made it possible to estimate imports to Russia in real time.
Four major Russian airlines, Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, Rossiya, and Pobeda, imported $110 million worth of Western components for their aircraft in 2023.
According to the source, Aeroflot brought in $7.5 million worth of spare parts from American companies Honeywell, $4.5 million worth of Woodward, and $2.5 million worth of Boeing, as well as $4.5 million worth of French Safran Nacelles.
In March 2023, S7 Airlines’ subsidiary Globus imported a turbojet engine from the French-American company CFM International for Airbus A320 family aircraft worth $7.5 million to Russia. In the same month, S7 imported an engine from the American General Electric for the Embraer E170 passenger plane for $4.4 million.
“This year, Pobeda imported more than $3.5 million worth of spare parts from Honeywell, and more than $2 million worth of parts from Rockwell Collins Inc and Boeing.
In 2023, Rossiya Airlines received Honeywell spare parts worth more than $6 million alone, the source said.
Russian airlines received components from Western manufacturers through China and the UAE. A small company called Protector imported some of the sanctioned spare parts for foreign aircraft to Russia.
According to the investigation, since 2023, it has imported aircraft parts worth at least $61 million. Among them are six aircraft engines for American and European Boeing 767, Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft. “Protector received spare parts with the help of companies from the UAE and Thailand.
Although Russian civil aviation has become one of the industries most affected by Western sanctions, it seems that Russian airlines have managed to solve the most critical problem for them – the lack of spare parts.
The publication’s investigation showed that parallel imports allow for the import of any parts, and thus circumvent European and American sanctions, and are virtually unaffected by them.
What is parallel import?
Simply put, it is a smuggling route authorized by the Russian authorities to supply sanctioned goods to Russia.
For example, there are a number of non-sanctioned countries that are friendly to Russia. These are mainly Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, China, Turkey, the UAE, Thailand, India and other Asian countries. A gasket company is opened in these countries, which orders the necessary components and equipment, but actually ships it all to Russia. And then it turns out that according to the documents, all these supplies go to countries that are not under sanctions, but then they end up in Russia. Thus, Russia hardly feels Western sanctions…
Western countries have not yet figured out what to do about it, or they do not want to see the obvious gap in sanctions.
