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The Caucasus Mountain range in Georgia is one of the great sights in the south of Europe. Towering peaks, higher than any in the Alps, rise up from green meadows and grassy hills covered in wildflowers. Winding roads thread through deep valleys, overlooked by ornate Orthodox churches and monasteries.

But when I visited recently, I found a sight of an unexpected kind. The roads here have become dominated by a very particular kind of traffic: enormous convoys of trucks, carrying all manner of goods towards Georgia’s northerly neighbour: Russia. When I travelled north towards the checkpoint of Lars – the only road into Russia – I encountered a long queue of trucks waiting to clear customs and pass across.

I had come here in search of an answer to a puzzle that’s been preoccupying me for some time. It began with a chart. This chart showed that after Russia invaded Ukraine and sanctions were imposed by G7 nations, including the UK, the flows of certain goods to that country suddenly cratered, falling to zero. That went for the so-called “dual use goods” you could use to create a makeshift weapon or put into a drone, but also for the luxury goods banned from sale into Russia.

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The theory back then was that by starving Russia’s war machine of the parts it needed and by starving senior Russian businesspeople and officials of the Western luxuries they coveted, European states could cause economic damage even if they weren’t directly at war with Vladimir Putin’s state.

But the data told a subtly different story. While exports of those goods to Russia certainly fell to zero, they suddenly rose sharply to a host of Russia’s neighbours. All of a sudden, Britain was sending drone equipment to Kyrgyzstan; all of a sudden, we were exporting luxury cars to Azerbaijan, in numbers we had never come anywhere close to before. Things got odder when you looked at Azerbaijan’s own export data, which showed a sudden spurt in its own luxury car exports (it does not manufacture luxury cars), to other countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia, including Georgia and Kazakhstan.

This posed a bit of a mystery. While sanctions experts said they suspected these Caucasus states were almost certainly being used as a kind of conduit, to send sanctioned goods to Russia, the data trail went cold when those cars entered the Caucasus. When we first raised this earlier in the year, Britain’s motor lobby group, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said: “UK vehicle exports to Azerbaijan – as to many countries globally – have increased due to a number of factors, not least a flourishing economy, new model launches and pent-up demand.”

The implication, in other words, was that most if not all the cars stayed in the Caucasus (which would be entirely legal) instead of crossing into Russia (which would not).

A Ferrari seen by Sky News near the border
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A Porsche seen by Sky News near the border

Like the driveway of a Mayfair hotel

All of which is how I found myself in the Caucasus mountains recently to see for myself whether this story really stacked up. We had gone there following a tip-off. A colleague in Georgia had sent us a photo from the border checkpoint, where a set of informal car parks was filled with the kind of concentration of luxury cars you would normally only expect to see outside a Mayfair hotel, or in a country like Dubai. There were Mercedes, high-end Lexus, BMWs and, there among a large number of German cars, two Range Rovers.

So we travelled out to Georgia to find out whether there were really UK-made cars still travelling into Russia. Now in some respects, our focus on cars might seem odd: after all, there are far more egregious breaches of the sanctions regime. Our previous investigation found radar parts and electrical equipment have also been sent from the UK to the Caucasus and Central Asia following the imposition of sanctions.

A Lamborghini and two Mercedes G-wagons
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A Lamborghini and two Mercedes G-wagons

But the reason we were focused on cars is that while there’s no way of telling from the outside what’s inside a cargo truck or a shipping container, vehicles are far harder to move secretly. In short, if we could show that European, and for that matter British cars were being moved into Russia, then it would demonstrate visually, for the first time, how these sanctions are being broken.

We spent two days close to the border, watching the process as cars and other trucks were brought there, and then sent over into Russia. We spoke to numerous men engaged in the trade. What we discovered was a complex but finely-honed system designed to transport European cars into Russia.

A Mercedes seen by Sky News near the Russian border
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A Mercedes seen by Sky News

‘This car will go to Russia and will remain there’

One group of men is charged with bringing the cars to the border – sometimes from showrooms in the capital, Tbilisi, sometimes from the Black Sea ports of Poti or Batumi. Mostly they don’t know where the cars come from beforehand – whether directly from countries like the UK or via other Caucasus states like Azerbaijan.

Once they bring the cars to the border, they leave them there in a set of car parks where they sit for a few days until the necessary paperwork is completed. That paperwork is not without its own complications: after European states imposed sanctions, Georgia introduced its own bans on sending cars into Russia. However, there are numerous loopholes that enable you to bring the cars across nonetheless.

A Porsche at an informal car park near the border
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A Porsche waits at the car park

One way is to have the cars registered and custom cleared in Armenia before they come up north to the Lars checkpoint in Russia. Sometimes those taking the cars into Russia are advised to say they are only being driven through Russia to Kyrgyzstan but, as one Russian YouTuber puts it: “Let’s be honest: everyone understands everything perfectly well – everyone from the people who will register you at the traffic police and the people at the Georgian border – that this car will go to Russia and will remain there.”

Either way, eventually these cars are issued with transit registration plates, after which they can be driven over the border. And since Georgians can travel visa-free into Russia, and vice versa, taking the cars across the border is simply a question of driving them there, leaving the car on the other side where it will be collected by another group of men, and then hitching a ride back into Georgia.

Checkpoint at the Georgian-Russian border
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Checkpoint at the Georgia-Russia border

Everyone wins – except the Ukrainians

We saw numerous cars being taken across the border in this way, and here’s the key thing about this system: first, no single person in the chain can easily be fingered for any crime – even though, when you put it all together, it certainly amounts to a contravention of sanctions law. Second, and just as importantly for our purposes, it means that the cars don’t show up in the customs data. From the point of view of a statistician, they simply arrive in Azerbaijan or Georgia and then they disappear.

This, we learnt, was only one of numerous routes sanctioned goods are taking into Russia, but such routes are, all told, a large part of the explanation for how Mr Putin is able to keep his regime equipped with the components it needs to wage war, and the luxuries needed to reward his cronies. The upshot is contrary to the promises when these sanctions were imposed: Russia’s economy remains strong, there are no shortages of essential and non-essential goods in Moscow and, along the way, Caucasus states like Georgia and Azerbaijan have seen an enormous economic boost from serving as an informal trade conduit. Everyone wins – except the Ukrainians.

Traffic waiting to cross from Georgia into Russia
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Traffic waiting to cross from Georgia into Russia

But while we saw this process carried out at the border for many German cars – Mercedes and Porsches were the most prevalent brands – we didn’t find the Range Rovers our contact had photographed a few days earlier. They were, presumably, already over the border.

So after a few days we headed south towards Tbilisi to talk to more people in the export trade. But just outside the Georgian capital, we suddenly spotted a convoy of trucks heading in the opposite direction. Among those trucks were two car carriers with what looked like brand new Range Rovers. We turned the car around and began to follow them up the mountain, realising that we were witnessing this shadow trade route in person.

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April: British cars going to the Caucasus

Up until then there had been no clear filmed evidence that British cars are actually leaving the Caucasus for Russia. So we followed the car carriers as they travelled slowly up the mountain roads towards the border.

When we arrived at the border, the atmosphere in the car park had transformed. What had been a quiet place during the day was a hive of activity. Clearly this was peak time – it seemed that most of the car deliveries happened in the dead of night. Not only were there two Range Rovers, there were countless other luxury cars, including top of the range Mercedes G-Wagons and a Lamborghini Urus.

When day broke the next morning, we checked the VIN numbers on the Range Rovers – the numerical fingerprint displayed on the windscreen, allowing you to trace these vehicles. They showed that these cars were brand new, made in Solihull in 2024. A document visible on the windscreen of one of them showed the date of April 2024.

Boxes inside one of the cars
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Boxes inside one of the cars

No one is trying to hide what’s happening

Those dates were significant: we at Sky News had warned CAT logistics groups about the existence of this trade in March 2024. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and the SMMT had been aware of the risks posed by these vehicles ending up in the Caucasus before these cars had been manufactured. Yet here they still were, en route to Russia, joining the line to cross over the border.

A spokesperson for JLR said: “JLR stopped sales of vehicles to Russia and Belarus in February 2022. Sanctions compliance is a corporate priority, as well as an obligation for our third-party retail network.

“An ongoing investigation into these vehicles has confirmed they were not supplied by JLR to the Georgia market. They were supplied by JLR to retailers in countries that do not share a border with Russia and then in turn sold to customers in those countries, which are subject to similar sanctions and export controls as we are in the UK in relation to Russia.

Makeshift car park full of luxury cars near the border
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Makeshift car park full of luxury cars, including Range Rovers, near the border

“JLR, along with its retailer network, continues to adapt its compliance strategies to counter the efforts of third parties seeking to circumvent sanctions against Russia and Belarus.”

An HMG spokesperson said:

“The UK has banned the export of thousands of goods to Russia, including cars. Over £20bn of UK trade with Russia is now under sanctions and we will continue to ratchet up economic pressure until it ends its brutal invasion of Ukraine.

“We are also working with UK businesses and exporters to ensure sanctioned goods are not supplied to Russia, and we expect them to continue to check their compliance with relevant UK sanctions.”

However, while UK carmakers and authorities insist they are doing everything they can to clamp down on these unofficial trade routes, perhaps the most startling takeaway from our investigation is that there on the ground in Georgia, no one is trying to hide what’s happening. Everyone knows these high-end European cars aren’t supposed to be going into Russia, yet they are passing over the border one by one, every day. Everyone knows what’s happening, but no one is doing anything to stop it.

And one has to presume much the same thing is happening with all types of goods, including those inside the bowels of the trucks lined up at the border. The passage of these cars is only the most visible evidence that the sanctions regime is not preventing expensive, important items travelling from Europe into Russia. For the time being, policymakers and businesses seem powerless or unwilling to prevent this murky trade.

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Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died, her family says

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Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died, her family says

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died aged 41.

In a statement to Sky’s US partner network NBC News on Friday, her family said she took her own life in Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years.

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said.

“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.

“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”

Ms Giuffre sued the Duke of York for sexual abuse in August 2021, saying Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend, the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The duke has repeatedly denied the claims, and he has not been charged with any criminal offences.

In March 2022, it was announced Ms Giuffre and Andrew had reached an out-of-court settlement – believed to include a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.

Prince Andrew attends the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church. File pic: Reuters
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Prince Andrew has denied all claims of wrongdoing. File pic: Reuters

‘An incredible champion’

Sigrid McCawley, Ms Giuffre’s attorney, told NBC News that she “was much more than a client to me; she was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims”.

“Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” she said. “The world has lost an amazing human being today.”

“Rest in peace, my sweet angel,” she added.

Dini von Mueffling, Giuffre’s representative, also told the outlet: “Virginia was one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know.

“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims. She adored her children and many animals.

“She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

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Ms Giuffre said at the end of March she had four days to live after a car accident, posting on social media that “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure”. She was discharged from hospital eight days later.

Raised mainly in Florida, she said she was abused by a family friend early in life, which led to her living on the streets at times as a teenager.

She said that in 2000, she met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Ms Giuffre said Maxwell then introduced her to Epstein and hired her as his masseuse, and said she was sex trafficked and sexually abused by him and associates around the world.

‘I am now a survivor’

After meeting her husband in 2002, while taking massage training in Thailand at what she said was Epstein’s behest, she moved to Australia and had a family.

She founded the sex trafficking victims’ advocacy charity SOAR in 2015, and is quoted on its website as saying: “I do this for victims everywhere.

“I am no longer the young and vulnerable girl who could be bullied. I am now a survivor, and nobody can ever take that away from me.”

:: 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.

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Fighter jets, a naval destroyer and guns on show: The ‘unprecedented’ security operation for Pope’s funeral

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Fighter jets, a naval destroyer and guns on show: The 'unprecedented' security operation for Pope's funeral

As the line of mourners moves slowly along behind him, Ciriaco Sarnelli peers at me from beneath the immaculate brim of his cap.

The military police chief looks, by any standards, magnificent – shoulders back and proudly wearing the black uniform of the Carabinieri.

“Our history goes back more than 200 years,” he says. “We remember our past, and our place. The only people with black uniforms are the priests, the judges and the Carabinieri.”

He leaves the rest unsaid – the Carabinieri sit at the heart of Italian cultural life.

Ciriaco Sarnelli, Carabinieri military police chief
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Ciriaco Sarnelli, Carabinieri military police chief

Pope latest: Security ramping up ahead of funeral

Once, they defended the borders of a young nation. Now, they have a new challenge that has its own weighty burden – to keep St Peter’s Square safe during the funeral of Pope Francis.

This is no easy task. Hundreds of thousands will descend upon the Vatican for the event.

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Many of the world’s best-known politicians and dignitaries will be welcomed into St Peter’s Basilica.

Inside will be Donald Trump, Sir Keir Starmer, Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Prince William and dozens upon dozens of other dignitaries.

Outside will be the Carabinieri.

They won’t be alone – there are thousands of other police officers due to be assigned to protect the event – but the Carabinieri are affiliated to the military; the most highly-trained officers on duty.

Read more:
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Security on horseback
Anti Drone gun for the Pope's funeral
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A member of the security personnel wields an anti-drone gun for the Pope’s funeral

“This is an extraordinary operation,” says Sarnelli, as we look out over the crowd. “So we have employed some special units that belong to Carabinieri – the bomb squad, a dogs unit, snipers and helicopters. We want to assure the people who are arriving here that they can take part in this event in the best way, in a secure way.”

He says they are ready for “common crimes” – like pickpockets in the crowd – but also “the biggest, terrifying events”.

He says there is “excellent coordination” with police forces from other countries.

Around him, his officers are smiling, chatting to tourists and Romans alike.

The security here is overt but friendly, even if I’m told there are also plenty of plain-clothed officers mingling within the crowd.

Guns and grins both on show.

A police helicopter circles above. In the port of Rome, a naval destroyer has been primed for action; there are fighter jets ready to take off.

You can watch full coverage of the funeral live on Sky News on Saturday

Crowds to see the Pope
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Huge crowds have come from around the world to see the Pope’s body

If the impression is relaxed, the reality is different. The classic swan.

All the strands are pulled together from one place and, what’s more, it offers a perfect view of Vatican City.

From where I’m standing, I can see the front of St Peter’s Basilica, the side, and the roads around it. I can see the crowds coming in, and the crowds going out.

And I can see an anxious policeman drumming his fingers.

But we are not in St Peter’s and not even in the Vatican.

This is the high-security control room on the fifth floor of Rome’s police headquarters.

And from here, you can see everything.

Rome Police control room
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The control room from where security officials can see across the Italian capital

Rome Police control room

An array of screens are in front of us and, watching them, men and women, huddled over screens and all wearing contrasting uniforms.

Some are military, some national police, some wear the clothes of firefighters. A few are in plain clothes and there is even a man wearing the badge of the prison officers’ service.

This centre is a hub for collaboration and decision-making and it brings together every service that is involved in ensuring the safety and security of the funeral.

There is a Carabinieri officer here, as well as the Guardia di Finanza national police and the Roman force. The government’s secret intelligence service is represented here, too.

Elisabetta Accardo is from Rome’s police department. We talk against the gentle hubbub in the control room, colleagues pointing at screens and agreeing plans.

Elisabetta Accardo, Rome Police control room spokeswoman
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Elisabetta Accardo, Rome Police control room spokeswoman

I ask when Italy last had to deal with a security operation on this scale, and she laughs. “Hundreds of years,” she says.

“It is unprecedented. The level of security is at the maximum.” She describes the plan as “structured three-dimensional security”.

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It is a plan that has been long in the making, but which has been reshaped over the past few days to react to the whims of the Pope’s final wishes.

It is, after all, more than a century since a pope was buried outside the walls of the Vatican.

You get the impression that the people designing the security plan could rather have done without having to add an hour-long procession through Rome into the plan.

But so be it.

By Saturday night, it will be done. Rome can start to get back to normal; the foreign leaders will be on their way home.

And the Rome police will breathe just a little bit easier.

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Kremlin blames Ukraine for car bomb killing of Russian general near Moscow – as Trump envoy meets Putin

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Kremlin blames Ukraine for car bomb killing of Russian general near Moscow - as Trump envoy meets Putin

The Kremlin has blamed Ukraine for a car bomb that killed a Russian general near Moscow hours before Donald Trump’s envoy was due to meet Vladimir Putin in the capital.

The death of Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik is the second such fatal attack on a top Russian military officer in four months.

Russia’s top criminal investigation agency said he was killed by an explosive device placed in his car in Balashikha, just outside the capital.

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Pic: Russian Ministry of Defence
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Yaroslav Moskalik. Pic: Russian Ministry of Defence

Moskalik was a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff of the Russian armed forces.

“The Kyiv regime once again simply shows its true nature. The Kyiv regime continues to be involved in terrorist activity on the territory of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He didn’t offer any evidence.

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“It shows once again that, despite the peace talks, we must be on guard and understand the nature of this regime.”

Ukraine has not responded to the killing.

Investigators at the scene where Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik was killed. Pic: AP
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Investigators work at the scene where Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik was killed. Pic: AP

Investigative committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said the explosive device was rigged with shrapnel, adding that investigators were at the scene.

Videos showed a vehicle burning in the courtyard of an apartment building and a body covered in a sheet could be seen on the pavement nearby.

Deadly attack is not a great look for the Kremlin

Explosions like this are happening with increasing frequency in Moscow. There have now been four since last summer, with high-ranking military figures the target each time.

The latest victim was another senior officer called Yaroslav Moskalik. He was a lieutenant general, and deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces.

It’s unclear why he was targeted – it may simply be because of his seniority and apparent vulnerability.

As with previous the bombings, there is an obvious question: is it because of the war in Ukraine?

Kyiv hasn’t commented on this bombing, but they did claim responsibility for the one in December that killed a top Russian general.

Speaking to Sky News, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called it a “terrorist attack”, echoing language Moscow has used when describing similar attacks in the past.

The timing feels significant – coinciding with Steve Witkoff’s visit to the Russian capital to meet Vladimir Putin.

If it was Ukraine, could it be a way of signalling their displeasure at the way peace talks are progressing? Or an attempt to demonstrate how Moscow can still be hurt?

Either way, it’s not a great look for the Kremlin.

It comes after Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed in December when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter parked outside his apartment building exploded as he left for his office.

Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the killing of Kirillov, and Ukraine’s security agency acknowledged that it was behind that attack.

Kirillov was the chief of Russia’s radiation, biological and chemical protection forces, the special troops tasked with protecting the military from the enemy’s use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and ensuring operations in a contaminated environment.

His assistant also died in the attack.

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Talks bring Russia and US ‘closer together’

Friday’s bombing came as Mr Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Mr Putin in Moscow to discuss a US-brokered peace plan for Ukraine.

The talks allowed Russia and the United States to “further bring their positions closer together” on “a number of international issues”, a Kremlin aide said.

The two sides discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine”, Yuri Ushakov said.

The talks in Moscow lasted for three hours and were “constructive and useful”, he added.

Speaking on a flight to Italy for the Pope’s funeral, the US president said he hadn’t been fully briefed on Mr Witkoff and Mr Putin’s meeting – but added it was a “pretty good meeting”.

The meeting was their fourth encounter since February.

Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.

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