Grey logistics schemes make it possible to circumvent sanctions against russia

This was announced by Vladislav Vlasyuk, the President’s Representative on Sanctions Policy, in a comment to Ukrinform.

“A recent joint investigation by European journalists has exposed a large-scale scheme by the Belarusian logistics holding Jenty to circumvent EU sanctions. The investigation was triggered by a fatal road accident in a Stockholm suburb involving a lorry bearing the Jenty logo. At the time of the accident, the lorry was transporting medical supplies to russia that had been manufactured at a Swedish factory belonging to the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca,” he noted.

According to him, the trade in medicines is not subject to restrictions in itself: the EU does not prohibit the export of medicines to Belarus and russia, “however, russian and Belarusian transport companies are not permitted to transport them through EU territory”.

Vlasyuk recalled that these sanctions were introduced back in April 2022 due to russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Belarusian regime’s complicity in it. Subsequently, the restrictive measures were tightened, prohibiting even those European firms where russian or Belarusian owners hold more than a 25% stake from operating in the EU.

“To circumvent these bans, Jenty created a covert network: formally, the order for AstraZeneca was fulfilled by the Polish subcontractor DSPL (registered to a Georgian citizen), and the trailer was registered in Kazakhstan. However, journalists have proven that this entire infrastructure is fully controlled by Jenty’s beneficiaries, in particular the family of the russian-Belarusian businessman Vasyl Smetanin. The use of such ‘grey’ logistics schemes under the guise of humanitarian cargo is a cause for serious concern,” the Commissioner emphasised.

Vlasyuk stressed that the investigation once again demonstrates that the issue of sanctions is not merely a matter of specific goods or companies, but also a matter of logistics chains, since “the very same transport networks can be used not only to supply medicines, but also goods that are critically important for the russian military-industrial complex, in particular microelectronics”.

“That is precisely why any signs of sanctions circumvention must be thoroughly investigated. We await the results of the official investigation by the Swedish side and value our cooperation with our partners in identifying and stopping sanctions circumvention,” he concluded.

Source: Ukrinform