An American company is among the few companies around the world that have sold “Pickup” trucks manufactured to Russia, despite the restrictions imposed by Washington sanctions that prohibit the sale of such vehicles to Moscow, information obtained by the Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent shows in a press investigation on Monday, July 28.
Moreover, a type of vehicle in particular – the RAM 1500 truck – has recently appeared in Russian state propaganda videos, the trucks being specially adapted to launch Kamikaze Drone on Ukrainian cities.
An investigation by the Kiev publication shows that several companies based in the United Arab Emirates (EAU) and one based in American state Virginia have helped Russia import at least 130 such vehicles since the beginning of Moscow in Ukraine.
And at least a small percentage of these seem to have reached the largest and “most secret” Russia factory.
The largest drone factory in Russia. “And the most secret”
On July 20, the Russian television channel Zvezda, controlled by the Russian Defense Ministry, broadcast a video showing a gigantic drone factory in Alabuga Industrial Park, near Kazan, in the Tatarstan region.
The complex is dedicated exclusively to the serial production of thousands of Geran-2 drones, the Russian version of the Iranian drones Shahed, which Moscow uses to bomb the Ukrainian cities every night.
“It is the largest factory in its kind in the world and the most secret,” said Timur Shagivaliev, the general director of the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, for Zvezda.
In addition to the production process, the video also shows the launch of a drone – behind a black RAM 1500 truck. Then there are a total of five vehicles equipped in this way.
The launch of the Geran-2 drones on the trucks is not a widespread tactic, a source of Ukrainian military intelligence (Hur) told The Independent.
“It is difficult to ensure the take -off of a drone with explosives from such a vehicle,” said the source, adding that the more common method is the use of stationary catapults.
American trucks in Russia
After the outbreak of the Russian invasion widely in Ukraine, Western countries, including the US, have imposed wide sanctions on banks, companies and natural persons in Russia, as well as on import and export of goods, in an attempt to paralyze the Russian economy.
Stelantis, the great car brands conglomerate that owns RAM Trucks, suspended the production operations of his Russian factory and all vehicle exports to Russia in the spring of 2022, “to ensure the full compliance with all the cross sanctions” imposed on Moscow.
However, the images raise a question: how did RAM 1500 trucks come to the US in the hands of the Russian army, despite the sanctions?
The publication in Kiev has discovered that several companies based in the United Arab Emirates have re -exported vehicles to Russian private companies, which can then return to a final customer. The final customer can be anyone, including Russian drone producers or Russian army.
“This type of indirect directing through countries such as Eau is a classic tactic of elimination of sanctions, known as a transbusion,” said Alex Bashinsky, co -founder of Global Sanctions Training (GSTI) in the US and member of the International Working Group on Sanctions against Russia.
But what is less common is that the restricted goods are sold and shipped directly from the US to Russia, and yet this happened in the case of at least eight RAM 1500 trucks.
Arivir Corp, a company based in Virginia, specialized in the export of vehicles from North America and Canada, sold at least eight RAM 1500 TRX and gray trucks, produced in 2023, to the Russian Russian company, according to a Russian customs leak, obtained by The Kyiv Independent.
The trucks were sent in 2023 and at the beginning of 2024.
According to one of these documents, Arivir Rus requests vehicles from Arivir Corp, who then purchases them from a dealer, returns to Arivir Rus and sends them to Russia.
Both President Arivir Corp, Ildar Abdullin, as well as the business developer of the company, Igor Zaripov, have Russian names and speak Russian, although the Ukrainian publication mentions that he could not confirm that they are Russian citizens. Arivir Rus is owned and led by a Russian citizen, Kirill Glazunov.
According to experts, the only way an exporting company could legally sell vehicles made in the US to a Russian company would be to obtain a special license in this regard, but they are systematically refused.
“The export of vehicles from US to Russia is generally forbidden, except for isolated cases in which an export license can be granted under very specific conditions,” said Vladislav Vlasiuk, the Commissioner of the Ukrainian president for the sanction policy.
Without this license, the US export restrictions on Russia and Belarus would violate, which include trucks.
“These licenses are hard to obtain,” Bashinsky said.
The publication in Kiev contacted Arivir Corp to ask if he had a license for vehicle export to Russia, but received no answer.
The bigger problem
The journalistic investigation has discovered that the few vehicles sent by the company based in the US are just the tip of the iceberg.
A total of 130 RAM 1500 trucks arrived in Russia between February 2022 and September 2024, many through companies that have not joined Western sanctions against Moscow, such as the United Arab Emirates.
The Kyiv Independent mentions that he has only searched for data on RAM 1500 – although the number of trucks made in the West, including other brands and models, who have arrived in Russia is probably much larger.
When they were contacted, none of the exporting companies confirmed that it has the American license for such exports.
Bashinsky said that this “transbial” process, in which trucks of US -free export authorization are transported, is a violation of US export controls, “regardless of where the intermediate seller is headquartered.”
Vlasiuk said that companies engaging in this practice could be subject to secondary sanctions, adding that American producers must “strengthen compliance and check the parties to whom vehicles are sold.”
Despite the risk of being subject to secondary sanctions, the investigation of the Ukrainian publication has discovered that several companies are involved in the transablier of American vehicles, one of them even advertising on social networks.
An August 2024 Instagram post of Mehrzad Cargo & Shipping LLC, registered in Dubai, shows a ship charged with American vehicles, including Ford and GMC trucks, specifying “loading to Russia”.
According to Russian customs documents, Mehrzad Cargo & Shipping LLC sent a RAM 1500 truck to a Russian company called Interco LLC in 2024.
Although the car was blue and is unlikely to be the one surprised in the recent video filmed with a drone at the Russian factory, without an American license, this delivery would still be a violation of the US restrictions on trade with Russia in early 2022, following the triggering of the Russian invasion.
Mehrzad Cargo & Shipping LLC did not respond to the written request of the Ukrainian publication to provide a point of view.
The press investigation has identified several other companies based in the United Arab Emirates selling RAM trucks to Russian companies.
According to the Russian customs data, the Automax Motors FZE car dealer, part of the Automax group, founded by Karim Saide, a citizen of Eau, delivered almost three dozen 1500 black, gray and white trucks, manufactured in 2023 and 2022, to the private company for commercialization of the RRC LLC vehicle Petersburg.
The final buyers of the vehicles are not known.
Kiev's publication contacted Automax Group to ask if Stellantis, the producer of RAM, was aware of their delivery to Russia, but received no answer.
Another company based in the United Arab Emirates, Fine Cars Eaeu – Fze, delivered at least 14 1500 black RAM trucks made in 2023 to a Moscow car rental company, Voyadger LLC, and at least 10 RAM 1500 and gray trucks manufactured in 2022 to a Russian private company in the field of LLC data, according to the LLC data. Rusesti drained.
According to the corporate data in Dubai provided to the Ukrainian newspaper by Diligencia Group, based in the UK, Fine Cars Eaeu was established in Dubai in October 2022 and is owned by Mostafa Aghili, who is also the company's director.
The company based in Eau has a low online presence and does not seem to promote its services.
The two Russian companies that received the vehicles are affiliated – their owners, two Russian citizens, appear together in other companies based in Moscow.
Where do the cars arrive?
Russian judicial documents suggest that, at least in some cases, Russian companies act as intermediaries for the subsequent resale of vehicles imported to an end user in Russia, although their identity is not often known.
The Kyiv Independent could not confirm which company transported the trucks presented in the propaganda video of the drone factory in Russia, but none of the vehicles identified in this investigation should have entered Russia without the US license.
The publication sent Selantis a written request that listed the accurate identification numbers of RAM 1500 imported in Russia by bypassing US restrictions, but has not received any response until the time of publishing the investigation.
