More than $30m (£23m) worth of aviation tires made by Western companies, including France’s Michelin and Britain’s Dunlop, were imported into Russia last year through intermediaries, despite attempts to ban the trade. About this informs The Guardian with reference to representatives of the Ukrainian government.
Russian aviation is said to be critically dependent on foreign-made tires, and according to available customs data, the majority of tires imported to Russia in 2023 were produced by companies headquartered in France, the UK, the US and Japan.
Following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the US and the EU imposed a ban on the sale of aircraft tires to Russia in February and April 2022, respectively. The UK introduced specific restrictions in December 2023, while Japan followed suit in July of that year, but customs records show numerous and successful attempts to circumvent the controls.
Tires from the French manufacturer Michelin accounted for the largest share of imports last year (70%) worth $28 million. Among the goods sold were tires used on an Airbus aircraft owned by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It is also reported about the supply of products from the American company Goodyear, the British company Dunlop and the Japanese Bridgestone.
According to an internal report by the National Anti-Corruption Agency seen by the Guardian, most of the Western supplies that entered Russia last year came via China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Central Asian countries, but there are also data on the arrival of tires directly from the West.
