A year after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia, despite sanctions, purchased original spare parts for Boeing and Airbus aircraft worth at least 18 billion rubles. This was found out by the “Important Stories” journalists who analyzed customs declarations.
As the publication writes, from March 2022 to March 2023, half of the components for planes to Russia were delivered from the UAE – for a total amount of 9 billion rubles. Next come China (5 billion rubles) and Turkey (2 billion rubles).
Some of the aircraft parts also come from Europe – under the parallel import scheme. For example, the Lithuanian company Right Direction Aero, according to customs declarations, supplied spare parts to the Russian Air Fly in the amount of 145 million rubles. Right Direction Aero director Pavel Chalapov told Important Stories that he did not know about this. According to him, the company sent spare parts to the Kyrgyz company Cargoline.
“We sold them [the Cargoline company] aircraft parts on the condition that they would not be able to re-export them to Russia. <…> As I see it, "Cargoline" kept us in the dark, deceived us and, apparently, forged documents,” Chalapov said.
Important Stories note that parts are often supplied to Russia by companies founded by Russians abroad. For example, Griffon, a company registered in the UAE, supplied components worth a total of 1.2 billion rubles. The company is owned by Irina Gorokhovskaya and Ilya Rysev, who sell aviation spare parts in Russia.
In August, Reuters reported that from May 2022 to June 2023, Russian airlines purchased components for Airbus and Boeing aircraft worth more than $1.2 billion – that’s more than 112 billion rubles. As the publication wrote, companies from Tajikistan, the UAE, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, China and other countries helped circumvent sanctions.
