Surge in sale of UK-made cars to Russia’s neighbours shows how it’s beating sanctions
British carmakers appear to have continued selling hundreds of millions of pounds of luxury vehicles to Russia even after the invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions, exporting the cars indirectly via former Soviet states, Sky News analysis suggests.
While direct British car exports to Russia have fallen to zero following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, that collapse has been followed by a corresponding increase in car exports to countries neighbouring Russia, most notably Azerbaijan.
Our analysis, based on official HMRC trade data, finds that the UK exported £273m of vehicles to Azerbaijan last year, a 1,860% increase compared with the five-year period preceding the invasion.
Not only is the increase in exports to Azerbaijan unprecedented, it is of a similar magnitude to the annual car exports to Russia in the two years before the imposition of sanctions, which averaged £330m.
Alongside the UK HMRC statistics, Sky News has analysed UN international trade data which shows that over precisely the same period that Britain recorded an unprecedented increase in car exports to Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan recorded an unprecedented increase in car exports to Russia.
The data chimes with testimony from Sky sources, who told us that while Russian car buyers sourcing German vehicles have primarily sent them via Kyrgyzstan, they prefer to use Azerbaijan as a route for British cars.
British carmakers insist that they are no longer selling cars to Russia. And the government data, collected by the HMRC on all goods leaving the country, do not constitute proof that the cars ended up in Russia. It is impossible to track each British consignment once it has left port, especially once it has arrived at a third country.
However, the government is concerned about this grey area, whereby goods may be sent to Russia via former Soviet satellite states in the Caucasus and central Asia.
A Moscow showroom showing at least one car for sale.
Cars are among the items banned from Russia under the so-called “dual use” sanctions regime. There is a specific ban of the sale of luxury cars – those worth more than £42,000 – to Russia.
The HMRC database, which also shows the count of cars sold as well as the total value, reveals that the average value of UK cars exported to Azerbaijan was more than £100,000 – suggesting that the consignments are primarily or exclusively luxury cars.
Britain’s motoring lobby group the SMMT said: “UK vehicle manufacturers are committed to full compliance with all current and future trade sanctions.
“While trade flows can vary and, indeed, be quite volatile with growing economies, there is no available evidence to indicate a lack of compliance with existing sanctions, but manufacturers will remain vigilant, and would condemn any party that puts their commitment to compliance at risk.”
Sanctions experts said part of the challenge in combating the flow of goods to Russia via third countries (as appears to be happening in this case) is that it is very difficult, sometimes near impossible, to track those consignments once they enter those other countries.
Portbury in Bristol is one of the UK’s main ports to handle the import and export of motor vehicles.
Tom Keatinge, Director at the Centre for Financial Crime & Security Studies, Royal United Services Institute says: “There are obviously very close economic ties between places like Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, they sit within a kind of common economic area. And so really, once the good is in that area, your ability to track it as the manufacturer in the UK is lost.
“What you should of course, be asking yourself, when it comes to exporting that car, or whatever it might be initially is, ‘Do I really think that this exporter who’s suddenly come out of nowhere to buy 100 cars Is actually importing cars only into that third country? Or might they be trying to make money out of circumventing sanctions and selling that onward into Russia?'”
Rolls-Royce, which is owned by BMW, said: “Rolls-Royce Motor Cars ceased production and supply of cars for the Russian market in late February 2022, before international trade sanctions were put in place. In the meantime, governments have implemented far-reaching sanctions, which we fully comply with and support.
“Retail sales of cars to clients are managed by our global dealer network, comprised of independently owned and operated businesses. Our global dealer network is contractually obliged to follow all applicable national and international legal regulations, including those relating to export control.
“If any new Rolls-Royce motor car has been imported into Russia since late February 2022 this has been done so without the knowledge or support of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.”
A 2023 Bentley car is shown for sale on a Russian franchise dealership’s website.
Pic: Bentley Moscow
A representative from Bentley, owned by VW, said: “We are committed to full compliance with all current and future trade sanctions and there is no evidence to suggest a lack of compliance with existing sanctions, or indeed a change of sales trend in Azerbaijan.”
While the HMRC data does not identify specific carmakers or consignments, it does show that the port most used for this particular trade from the UK was the Port of Bristol, which had never previously exported more than a few million pounds worth of goods each year to Azerbaijan. In the two years following the invasion it saw those exports shoot up to more than £100m a year. The Port of Bristol did not respond to Sky News’s requests for a comment.
For the UK as a whole, the dramatic rise in car exports to Azerbaijan stands out in the trade statistics. In the space of a couple of years, this state of 10 million people, with a GDP around the same size as Ghana, has become the UK car industry’s 16th biggest export destination by value, ahead of Austria, Portugal and Sweden.
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Feb: Is Russia beating UK sanctions?
Sky News has previously shown that many other banned items, including those known to have been repurposed as weapons, have been sent to former Soviet states in the Caucasus and Central Asia, including Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. Those states have all recorded sharp increases in their exports to Russia.
Britain’s sanctions minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “The work of investigative journalists and NGOs’ continuing efforts to highlight circumvention are an important part of our collective efforts to track and evidence Putin’s abhorrent crimes.
“We have introduced the largest and most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on Russia or indeed any major economy with 2,000 individuals and entities under the Russia regime. Alongside our international allies we’ve been clear no country should be propping up Russia’s war machine.
“We continue to bear down on those who do business with Putin and his cronies, including sanctioning individuals who try to bypass our sanctions, and working with partners and a range of third countries to stem the flow of goods into Russia.”
Two firefighters and a member of the public have died in a large fire in Bicester, the fire service announced.
The firefighters died in the inferno at a former RAF base in Oxfordshire, which now hosts historic motoring and aviation centre Bicester Motion.
The local fire service was called to the scene at 6.39pm last night.
Chief Fire Officer Rob MacDougall said: “It is with a very heavy heart that we today report the loss of two of our firefighters. Families have been informed and are being supported.
“Our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times and we ask for privacy to be respected.
“We cannot release any details at present but will provide further information as soon as we can.”
Two other firefighters sustained serious injuries and are currently being treated in hospital, Oxfordshire County Council said in a statement.
Footage shared on social media shows plumes of smoke billowing into the sky and flames swallowing the large building.
Clouds of smoke from the fire were billowing into the sky last night. Pic:@kajer87X
Two firefighters and one other person died in the fire, while two more firefighters were seriously injured. Pic: PA
Ten fire crews attended the incident, with four remaining at the scene. The fire is still ongoing, but it is considered under control.
Local residents were advised to remain indoors and keep their windows shut, but this advice has now been lifted.
Bicester Motion said in a statement it would be closed today and over the weekend.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
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UK
‘Toxic’ army unit charged with investigating sex crimes allowing abusers to ‘get away with it’ in own ranks, whistleblower says
More than a dozen women came forward to report a staff sergeant in the Royal Military Police (RMP) for sexual abuse, but he was allowed to resign from the army instead of face charges.
Warning: This article contains material some readers may find distressing
That’s the claim of a whistleblower who served as a sergeant in the RMP for over a decade and says she was one of the man’s victims.
Amy, not her real name, says a “toxic” culture in the military police means sexual predators in the army are “getting away with stuff that they shouldn’t be getting away with”.
It’s a rare insight into life inside the Royal Military Police, the corps charged with investigating crime in the army.
Amy described how the man who assaulted her would go into women’s rooms and sit on their beds. She says he used to force her to go out driving with him at night and talk about sex.
“He preyed on the young, new females that were in the unit,” she says.
“One day, I was out with my friends in town and he was on patrol… There were two of us that went over to speak to him and I had quite a low-cut top on.
“So he hooked his finger around my top and pulled my boob out”.
She recalls as she tried to stop him, “he grabbed my hand and put it on his penis”.
She claims there are other men in the RMP who’ve been accused of sexual offences, recalling hearing of five separate allegations of rape against male colleagues by female colleagues.
“If all of this sexual assault and bullying and rapes are going on within the military police, how can they then go out and investigate the wider army for doing the same things?” she says.
“It doesn’t work.”
Amy, a former RMP officer who alleges sexual abuse in the armed forces
‘He got away with it’
Looking back on her career in the army is difficult for Amy.
After leaving, she tried to settle back into life as a civilian with a new job and a young family to look after, but says she worried about bumping into former colleagues in the street.
“It’s taken me a long time to heal,” she says.
“I was very bitter towards my military career when I left, but I’ve had to sort of learn, build myself up again and remember the good times because they were really good times as well… I think it was just so bad at points.”
When she joined the RMP, she believed she would be part of a unit “representing how the rest of the soldiers should be conducting themselves”.
The reality, she says, was that she had become part of “one of the most toxic” corps in the army.
She recalls being told that the staff sergeant she had reported for sexual assault would be allowed to resign.
“They basically told me he’s not going to be charged, but will be leaving the military… doing him a favour,” she says.
“He got away with it all,” she adds. “He’s not going to lose his pension and whatever else he would have lost with a dishonourable discharge.
“He’s left without a criminal record… that’s not safe for civilians as well, because it’s not even on his record.”
‘They investigate themselves’
Earlier this year, an inquest into the suicide of 19-year-old Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck found she had been failed by the army after reporting sexual assault and harassment.
Since then, Sky News has reported claims of widespread abuse and growing calls for investigations into sexual offences to be removed from the RMP and instead carried out by civilian police.
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From March: Army women reveal alleged abuse
The Labour chair of the influential House of Commons Defence Committee is now urging the government to act.
Tan Dhesi told Sky News: “The system needs to change… incidents of sexual violence and sexual assault should be dealt with not by the Royal Military Police but by civilian police and civilian courts.
“I hope that the government will be making that substantial change in the very, very near future; in fact, they should do it ASAP.”
Tan Dhesi MP told Sky News that ‘the system needs to change… ASAP’
Since Gunner Beck’s death, a new tri-service complaints team has been announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The change will see bullying, harassment, discrimination related service complaints dealt with by a team outside the commands of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force.
However, Amy believes investigations need to be done “completely separately from the military”.
“Otherwise it doesn’t work because friends will be investigating friends,” she says.
“I think there’s such a male-dominated space in the military still. Women have no chance… and it’s not fair because people are getting away with stuff that they shouldn’t be getting away with and allowed to continue doing it and ruining lives.”
She believes the entire system lacks accountability. “They investigate themselves,” she says, even down to how the RMP is regulated.
“The people that run that unit are RMP. They get posted in, do a few years and then get posted back out.”
‘I was told off for reporting it’
Katie, also not her real name, served in the army for over 20 years. She saw active service in Afghanistan and rose to the rank of Captain.
It was a distinguished career that was brought to a premature end by sexual abuse and whistleblowing.
Having taken the difficult decision to leave the army she now leads a secluded life and suffers poor mental health.
Katie (centre), who resigned from the armed forces after alleged sexual abuse, as a serving RMP officer
“I still struggle,” she says. “I’m still very wary of men. My relationship is strained.
“Everything seems like black and white now, like I live my life in black and white rather than full colour… As a person, it has changed my life forever.”
To begin with, she was in the same unit that Gunner Beck would join years later. She too experienced harassment and abuse, and says her line manager “laughed” when she reported it.
“I just felt like dehumanised, I felt like property, I didn’t feel like a person anymore,” she says.
“And so I would avoid people… I would hide in the garages, behind the tanks, in between the guns, just praying that these people hadn’t seen me and I might be able to escape them for that day.”
She moved to a different unit but says wherever she went, abuse was rife. After being groped by a higher-ranking colleague, she assumed her chain of command would escalate her report to the RMP.
Instead, she says she was “put in front of the Sergeant Major and told off”.
“I remember at the time saying I’d like to call the civilian police, and I was told that I wasn’t allowed to do that and I’d be disciplined if I tried to do that,” she said. “So I was so frightened.”
She stayed in the army, hoping to make a difference. As an officer, she began reporting abusers on behalf of younger victims.
“I kept this goal in my head of reaching a position one day where I could help other women,” she said. “When I got there, I realised that it was way more toxic than I could have ever imagined.
“The officer corps were actually the worst perpetrators of all because they brushed it under the carpet. There was a will and a need more to protect themselves or their friends. Or the reputation of the unit first and foremost.”
She believes changes made by the MoD since the death of Gunner Beck to remove the chain of command from sexual abuse investigations will make “little difference”, saying they’ll still be carried out by “the same people, but just under a new title”.
‘They should be held accountable’
An MoD spokesperson told Sky News that “unacceptable and criminal behaviour has absolutely no place in our Armed Forces”.
They added: “That is why this government is creating a new Tri-Service Complaints team to take the most serious complaints out of the chain of single service command for the first time, and has launched a new central taskforce on Violence Against Women and Girls to give this issue the attention it deserves.
“We are also establishing an independent Armed Forces Commissioner with the power to visit defence sites unannounced, and to investigate and report to parliament any welfare matters affecting service life.”
Amy believes the RMP is not fit for purpose.
“They have higher standards to uphold, yet they don’t uphold them within their own regiment, within their own lives, and then they’re expected to police and uphold those standards throughout the rest of the army,” she says.
“At the end of the day, they know the law and they should be held accountable for what they do.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
Further moves to amend the controversial assisted dying bill are being made by MPs as it returns to the Commons for another day of emotionally charged debate.
After a marathon committee stage, when more than 500 amendments were debated, of which a third were agreed, the bill returns to the Commons with 130 amendments tabled.
As a result, the final and decisive votes on whether the bill clears the Commons and heads to the House of Lords are not expected until a further debate on 13 June.
The bill proposes allowing terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to receive medical assistance to die, with approval from two doctors and an expert panel.
Why is assisted dying so controversial – and where is it already legal?
In a historic vote last November, after impassioned arguments on both sides, MPs voted 330 to 275 in favour of Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour, while Deputy PM Angela Rayner, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood voted against.
The Conservatives were also split, with leader Kemi Badenoch voting in favour and former PM Rishi Sunak against. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also voted against the bill.
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Assisted dying: Care sector ‘not being heard’
The PM, who is attending a summit in Albania, will be absent this time, but asked for his current opinion, told reporters: “My views have been consistent throughout.”
No fewer than 44 of the new amendments have been tabled by Ms Leadbeater herself, with government backing, a move that has been criticised by opponents of the bill.
Opponents also claim some wavering MPs are preparing to switch from voting in favour or abstaining to voting against and it only needs 28 supporters to change their mind to kill the bill.
Confirmed switchers from voting in favour to against include Tory MPs George Freeman and Andrew Snowden, Reform UK chief whip Lee Anderson and ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe.
Labour MP Debbie Abrahams and Tory MP Charlie Dewhirst, who abstained previously, are now against and Labour’s Karl Turner, who voted in favour at second reading, is now abstaining.
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Assisted Dying Bill criticised
Mr Turner, a former barrister, told Sky News that an amendment to replace a high court judge with a panel of experts “weakens the bill” by removing judicial safeguards.
But in a boost for the bill’s supporters, Reform UK’s Runcorn and Helsby by-election winner Sarah Pochin, a former magistrate, announced she would vote in favour. Her predecessor, Labour’s Mike Amesbury, voted against.
“There are enough checks and balances in place within the legislation – with a panel of experts assessing each application to have an assisted death, made up of a senior lawyer, psychiatrist, and social worker,” said Ms Pochin, who is now the only Reform UK MP supporting the bill.
A Labour MP, Jack Abbott, who voted against in November, told Sky News he was now “more than likely” to vote for the bill, which was now in a much stronger position, he said.
Ms Leadbeater’s supporters strongly deny that the bill is at risk of collapse and are accusing its opponents of “unsubstantiated claims” and of “scare stories” that misrepresent what the bill proposes.
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Two people given months to live debate assisted dying
“There is a pretty transparent attempt by opponents of the bill to try to convince MPs that there’s a big shift away from support when that simply isn’t true,” an ally of Ms Leadbeater told Sky News.
Speaking in an LBC radio phone-in on the eve of the debate on the amendments, Ms Leadbeater said she understood her bill was “an emotive issue” and there was “a lot of passion about this subject”.
But she said: “I would be prepared to be involved in a compassionate end to someone’s life if that was of their choosing. And it’s always about choice. I have friends and family who are very clear that they would want this option for themselves.
“There is overwhelming public support for a change in the law and literally everywhere I go people will stop me and say thank you for putting this forward. I would want this choice.”
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Also ahead of the debate, health minister Stephen Kinnock and justice minister Sarah Sackman wrote to all MPs defending the government’s involvement in Ms Leadbeater’s amendments to her bill.
“The government remains neutral on the passage of the bill and on the principle of assisted dying, which we have always been clear is a decision for parliament,” they wrote.
“Government has a responsibility to ensure any legislation that passes through parliament is workable, effective and enforceable.
“As such, we have provided technical, drafting support to enable the sponsor to table amendments throughout the bill’s passage. We have advised the sponsor on amendments which we deem essential or highly likely to contribute to the workability of the bill.”
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