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A few weeks ago Ramzan Kadirov, warlord and dictator of Chechnya, one of the republics of the Russian Federation, boasted of having several Tesla Cybertrucks with the intention of using them in Ukraine as combat vehicles.
Beyond the nonsense that would entail using a Cybertruck as a combat vehicle, one wonders how he had managed to buy three Cybertrucks when Russia is under US and European sanctions, so ni Tesla or any other brand of luxury cars You can sell your products in the Federation of Russia. The answer is very simple, they go through Georgiavia intermediary buyers.
In transit between several countries, the car disappears
High-end cars continue to circulate in Moscow. Russia’s wealthy elite continue to indulge themselves despite restrictions imposed by the European Union. Initially, the cars passed through Belarus, according to the Financial Timesa satellite country of Russia, where the sale of latest generation Western and Japanese luxury vehicles was not penalized.
The monthly flow of vehicles and spare parts from European countries to Belarus increased from a value of 50 million dollars in January 2022 to 268 million in January 2024.
However, after the opposition of Germany and France to extending the sanctions applied to Russia to Belarus, the European Union finally also imposed restrictions on the sale of luxury cars to Belarus. From the last July 1Belarus is under the same sanctions regime. But it is not a problem for the wealthiest Russians either. A new route has simply been sought. And this one now passes through Georgia.
The most curious thing is that, after the introduction of sanctions by European countries, Georgia introduced its own ban on sending cars to Russia, but there are many loopholes that allow import cars to Russian territory.
How do cars get to Russia? While direct exports of banned goods to Russia have fallen to virtually zero, they have also risen sharply for several of Russia’s neighbors, recall from SkyNews.
Suddenly, the UK started shipping drone equipment to Kyrgyzstan and export luxury cars to Azerbaijanand in enormous quantities. At the same time, Azerbaijan itself suddenly began exporting luxury cars to other countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia, including Georgia and Kazakhstan, although it does not produce cars.
Specifically, an individual orders a car from a dealership in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Mercedes GLS or a Range Rover, for example. Or, more commonly, an employee of a Baku dealer buys the car in Germany or the United States on the second-hand market.
Once he has received the car, it is in turn exported to Armeniafrom where it will be sent to another company or individual in Kyrgyzstan. This forces the car to have to cross Georgia and Russia. And, of course, at some point during the transit between the Georgian border and the Kyrgyz border in Russia, the car will disappear. It will never reach Kyrgyzstan.
In practice, some cars are simply exported on trucks, while others are registered in Armenia, so they can cross from Georgia to Russia on the road. The trick here is that Georgian citizens can enter Russia freely, without a visa or paperwork.
Thus, in the Lars Checkpointthe only land border crossing between Georgia and Russia, luxury SUVs accumulate in the area’s parking lots. From the Lamborghini Urus to the new range rover passing through bmw x6, Mercedes GLS Maybach or a handful of Hyundai Palisades from the US market, there are the cars, most without license plates, waiting for someone to take them across the border.
With the transit documentation in hand, Georgian and Russian drivers will be in charge of taking those cars across the border, one by one, as individuals and leaving the car on the other side of Lars Checkpoint, where someone will come to pick it up and take it away. for Moscow, Saint Petersburg or Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. This way Kadirov will be able to invent that Elon Musk has given him a Cybertruck.
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