Radio Liberty: Moldovan companies, as intermediaries, sold about $15 million worth of aircraft parts to Russia
Radio Liberty: Moldovan companies, as intermediaries, sold about $15 million worth of aircraft parts to Russia
Chișinău, Moldova (Svidomi) — Three Moldovan companies continued to sell aircraft parts to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Between 2022 and 2023, Moldova sold components worth about $15 million, RFE/RL's Moldova Service investigation says.
According to the Russian Customs Service and the international trade databases ImportGenius and Sinoimex, Airrock Solutions, Maxjet Service and Aerostage Services supplied airlines with aircraft to Russian companies Pobeda, S7 Engineering, Sibir and Rossiya.
Airrock and Aerostage were founded in November 2021 and April 2022, respectively, by Ivan Melnikov, former head of procurement and logistics at Air Moldova, RFE/RL's journalists report. This is a national airline that is in the process of liquidation.
Maxjet Service is a company registered in the Hîncești district in 2011 and run by Sergiu Ranga.
The founders were convinced the parts were going to the Commonwealth of Independent States (intergovernmental organization made up of post-Soviet nations throughout Eurasia - ed.), not Russian Federation.
The components that ended up in Russia were purchased in, among other places, the United States, Mexico, India, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Belgium.
Among the Russian airlines that purchased components from Maxjet Service was Severstal, owned by sanctioned Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov.
Both Ranga and Melnikov told Radio Liberty that their firms had stopped those transactions in 2022. However, database records show that Melnikov's companies still acted as intermediaries in the purchase of spare parts to Russia in 2023.
In a commentary to journalists, Ivan Melnikov condemned the intrusion and called Russia an "aggressor country".
Peter Stano, the European Commission's spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said that Russia's circumvention of sanctions by third countries is a "great concern" for the EU.
The spokesperson noted that Moldova had promised the EU to prevent the circumvention of EU sanctions and had already made "significant progress".
It will be recalled that Finnish companies supply components and equipment for the Russian defence industry and help to circumvent sanctions.
