Tens of thousands of cars are exported from China to Russia as part of gray market schemes. This would circumvent the sanctions of Western and Asian governments, and the commitments of car manufacturers to withdraw from the Russian market.
In many cases, these cars are new vehicles. Then, they are registered in China as “second-hand” by dealers or traders, and then sent to Russia to avoid official restrictions.
Second-hand cars with zero mileage often have a significantly reduced price in China. In Russia, they end up costing as much as unregistered new vehicles.
A Reuters investigation shows that imports from China have come to represent almost half of the approximately 130,000 foreign vehicles sold in Russia in 2025. Over 700,000 such cars have reached the Russian market since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
Western car manufacturers claim they do not authorize sales in Russia and try to stop unofficial exports, but monitoring and enforcing the rules remain difficult due to the complexity of trade routes and intermediary chains. Authorities in Germany, Japan, and South Korea say they are trying to reduce unauthorized exports, but sanctions are hard to fully enforce.
Russian traders acknowledge that they have customers who want to drive Western cars. According to them, the import of these cars is currently impossible due to sanctions, and sellers are looking for alternative delivery routes.