The UK introduced stricter sanctions on trade with Russia in September 2022, but Bellingcat’s new financial team can reveal that UK Limited Partnerships have acted as intermediaries for over 17,000 imports into Russia between 24 February 2022 and 31 March 2023.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/11/03/frontline-facilitators-how-secretive-uk-partnerships-supply-wartime-russia/?utm_source=mastodon
Frontline Facilitators: How Secretive UK Partnerships Supply Wartime Russia - bellingcat
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, UK Limited Partnerships (LPs) have been named as trade intermediaries in thousands of records detailing imports into the belligerent state. The UK has introduced a variety of sanctions aimed at negating Russia’s war efforts. However, experts have long argued these corporate vehicles — which are easy […]
Experts have long feared that UK Limited Partnerships (LPs) have been used to easily set up unchecked illicit activity on global financial markets. None of the ones Bellingcat found in this investigation, had a controlling partner or persons of significant control in the UK.
The widespread use of these Persons of Significant Control outside of the UK and EU and controlling partners in secrecy jurisdictions makes any meaningful attempt to identify the true beneficial owners of these partnerships all but impossible.
Even more concerning was that from our findings, more than 600 of the shipments concern items flagged by the EU and its partners as "High Priority" battlefield components, potentially dual-use and sanctioned items that could assist Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
3,211 exports into Russia contained items included in the 'universe of critical components', a term the pro-Ukrainian International Working Group on Russian Sanctions uses to define components found on the battlefield.
https://fsi9-prod.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-07/sanctions_working_group_-_russian_import_of_critical_components-7-9-2023_final.pdfBellingcat looked at import records of LP shipments from the start of the Russian invasion into Ukraine (24 February 2022) using the database ImportGenius
https://www.importgenius.com/
International Trade Databases for Import-Export Businesses | ImportGenius
Comprehensive trade databases from ImportGenius support import-export business in finding new global opportunities, research markets, evaluate trade partners, and more.
The EU and its international partners list a number of Harmonised System codes "High Priority". For example items "found on the battlefield in Ukraine or critical to the development, production or use of those Russian military systems".
These include items such as ball bearings, static converters, television cameras, aerials, plugs and sockets. Bellingcat found 678 successful exports utilising UK LPs as shippers, under these codes, during the course of the first year of war in Ukraine.
In one example from our analysis of HS codes we found 5,000 kilos of static converters arriving in Moscow on 28 August 2022, in a shipment facilitated by a Scottish LP whose controlling partner is based in the Seychelles, and Person of Significant Control, a Russian national.
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