Moldovan companies continued to broker aircraft parts sales in Russia in 2023, despite European sanctions, a new Europa Libera investigation shows. The EU said it is “concerned” about reports of sanctions being evaded and that the government in Chisinau should take action.
Europe Free’s investigation shows that three companies from the Republic of Moldova sold aircraft components worth around 15 million dollars to Russian airlines in 2022 – 2023.This was made possible because the Republic of Moldova did not join the regime of anti-Russian sanctions in the aviation industry, adopted by the European Union in response to the large-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2022. Data from the Russian Customs Service examined by Europe Free shows that the transactions through Moldovan companies started just a few months after the start of the invasion. The Moldovan companies Airrock Solutions, Maxjet Service and Aerostage Services delivered parts to well-known players in Russia, including Pobeda, S7 Engineering, Sibiri, and Rossia.
Airrock and Aerostage were founded in November 2021 and April 2022, respectively, by Ivan Melnikov, former head of the procurement and logistics department at Air Moldova, the former national airline currently undergoing liquidation procedures. Maxjet Service is a company registered in the Hâncești district in 2011 and is managed by Serghei Ranga.
Russian airlines desperately need Western parts for the maintenance of their passenger and cargo aircraft fleets. The European sanctions in the aviation field aimed to cut off this supply chain for the Russians. Together with sanctions imposed in other sectors of the Russian economy, those in the aviation field were intended to increase the costs of the war for Russia and convince the Kremlin to stop the invasion. Russian and international media have reported numerous cases where Russia uses third countries, which are not targeted by international sanctions or have not joined them, to obtain vital Western components for various industries, including the civil aviation industry.
In the case of Moldovan companies, they acted as intermediaries. The scheme works as following: the intermediary establishes connections with companies from the countries that produce parts and places the order, also ensuring the transportation of the parts to the Russian Federation. The investigation by Europei Libere shows that, in some cases, Moldovan intermediaries even provided transportation of the parts to Russian airports and hangars of importing Russian companies. However, the parts did not physically pass through the Republic of Moldova, so the transactions are not recorded in Moldovan customs documents.Ivan Melnikov and Serghei Ranga told Europei Libere that they were not aware that the parts purchased by their companies ended up in the Russian Federation, explaining that they did not have direct contracts with Russian clients and that the parts bought in the West or the United Arab Emirates were intended for companies in other CIS countries.
Livrări de milioane de dolari, în 2022
Din aprilie 2022 până la sfârșitul acelui an, companiile Airrock și Aerostage ale lui Ivan Melnikov au făcut vânzări de peste 4,8 milioane de dolari. Componente procurate în SUA, Mexic, India, Marea Britanie, Germania, Franța și Belgia au fost livrate de aceste firme pe aeroportul Șeremetievo din Moscova, arată datele Serviciului Vamal al Federației Ruse. În toate actele analizate de Europa Liberă, la secțiunea „țară de comerț”, este indicată R. Moldova, alături de adresele juridice ale companiilor Airrock Solutions și Aerostage Services.
And the sales of Maxjet Service, Serghei Ranga’s company, from Hâncești, exploded in 2022. Before the war in Ukraine, the firm with five employees barely reached an annual income of 5 million lei. In 2022, maintaining the same number of employees, the company’s revenues began to increase rapidly, reaching 186 million lei, with a net profit of 32 million lei.
In 2022, Maxjet Service purchased parts for Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, and Embraer from countries such as the United Arab Emirates, USA, Maldives, and the United Kingdom, which were subsequently delivered to the Russian Federation. The total value of the deliveries exceeded 9.6 million dollars.Among the Russian airlines that bought components from Maxjet Service is Severstal, owned by Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov, who is sanctioned by the EU. A flight recorder for Severstal’s Bombardier CRJ-200 was ordered by Ranga in the United States and delivered to an airport in the Vologda region in October 2022.
The transactions continued in 2023
The fact that Moldovan companies have facilitated the delivery of Western airplane parts to Russia in 2022 was reported by a investigation by Reuters, published in August 2023.
In a discussion with Radio Free Europe, Serghei Ranga from Maxjet Service stated that he was contacted by Moldovan “law enforcement” in regards to the fact that aircraft parts transactions could “affect the country’s image”. The Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Causes told Radio Free Europe that prosecutors have not initiated any criminal investigations against the directors of the three companies. Both Ranga and Serghei Melnikov from Airrock and Aerostage told Radio Free Europe that their companies have ceased these transactions in 2022. However, entries from international trade databases ImportGenius and Sinoimex, found by Radio Free Europe, suggest that, although on a much smaller scale (around $700,000), Melnikov’s companies also facilitated aircraft parts acquisitions in 2023 that ended up in Russia.
Dezmințiri: „Nu am livrat la Moscova”
Serghei Ranga also told Radio Free Europe that Maxjet Service did not directly deliver parts to Russian companies after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He claims that he did not know the final destination of the parts purchased by his company was the Russian Federation.
“We procured […] for companies throughout the CIS and did not have direct contracts with anyone in Russia. We did not deliver to Moscow,” Ranga said.
Why does Ranga’s company appear in the data of the Russian Customs Service in this case? “Everything was done through satellite companies and they put us in documents,” explains the businessman. The founder of the other two Moldovan companies that appear in Russian customs documents, Ivan Melnikov, confirmed to Radio Free Europe that he delivered components to Russia, but only before it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In our conversation, Melnikov condemned the invasion and described Russia as an ‘aggressor country.’ He says he ‘doesn’t know’ how his companies’ products ended up in the hands of Russians, as they only had direct contacts with firms in countries that were not subject to sanctions – the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, France, and the USA. Additionally, according to Melnikov, transactions with Russians have become ‘impossible’ due to the banking restrictions imposed by Western countries.
What the European Union says
Moldova has gradually aligned itself with several rounds of European sanctions against the Russian Federation, introduced as a result of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, but not all of them. In response to Radio Free Europe, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chisinau stated that Moldova has not yet aligned itself with economic sanctions targeting the financial, commercial, energy, transportation, technology, and defense sectors of the Russian Federation.
But authorities from Chisinau have said that the sanctions in the financial and banking sector are de facto implemented, making all transactions with Russia difficult. The European Union is increasingly urging the Republic of Moldova, a candidate country for accession, to gradually align itself with all European sanctions regimes against Russia.
Peter Stano, spokesperson for EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrel, told Radio Free Europe that Russia’s circumvention of sanctions through third countries is a matter of “great concern” for the EU.
Stano says that the Republic of Moldova has promised the European Union not to allow circumvention of European sanctions and has already made “considerable progress” in aligning with these sanctions. However, the government in Chisinau “must” take action in regards to “questions regarding alleged deliveries of components to Russia by Moldovan companies,” Stano added. Currently, the government in Chisinau has not responded to our request to address the reports regarding deliveries of airplane parts to Russia.
But sources from the presidency, speaking anonymously, have stated that the authorities are aware of the issue regarding the deliveries made by the three Moldovan companies, and that “competent bodies” are analyzing the transactions. The source from the presidency also stated that discussions have recently been initiated regarding a timeline for aligning with other restrictive measures against the Russian Federation.
Source: Europa Libera