Foreign cars flow to Russia through China, skirting Ukraine war sanctions

Tens of thousands of cars are being exported from China to Russia under gray-market schemes that often circumvent Western and Asian government sanctions and automakers' commitments to exit the Russian market, according to registration data reviewed by Reuters and interviews with five people involved in the trade. Reuters is the first to report the Autostat data, China's emergence as the primary conduit for foreign vehicles to reach Russia and the practice of ‌avoiding automakers' Russia-sales restrictions by classifying new cars as used. "Given the trade between Russia and China – which has grown significantly in recent years in terms of cars – it is obvious to conclude that many of those cars imported into China from Germany end up in Russia," Munoz said.