Audi and BMW enter Russia disguised as Chinese cars to circumvent sanctions

Brand new German luxury cars are entering Russia disguised as Chinese used cars. The scheme, revealed by a series of images published on Instagram and detailed by Autoblog, combines a notarial maneuver with an emblem fraud: Audi, BMW and other brands banned from the country since 2022 cross the border bearing the logo of the Chinese Changan — and return to being European on the other side.

The contraption works in two stages: first, new vehicles, without any running, are registered as sold in China, which reclassifies them on paper as “used exports”. Then, before boarding, they are temporarily branded by a Chinese manufacturer, such as Changan, so that customs documentation describes a cheap local car — not a sanctioned European model. In Russia, the fake emblem is removed and the original logo returns. An internet user caught an Audi A6L (exclusive version of the Chinese market) and a BMW X5 on top of storks, both dressed as Changan.

The “used with zero kilometer” trick exploits a precise loophole. Automakers can contractually prohibit the sale of new cars to Russia, but these clauses cease to apply when the vehicle has already been classified as semi-new. According to the CarNewsChina website, Chinese dealers register zero models as sold domestically, which instantly converts them into used ones. A former exporter of a Sichuan company told Reuters that this reclassification exists only to facilitate exports. In Russia, these cars are sold for prices equivalent to those of a new one.

Data from Russian consultancy Autostat, obtained by Reuters, show that about 47,000 vehicles from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and the Volkswagen Group — including Audi, Porsche and Skoda — were registered in Russia in 2025, even though all these brands have announced their exit from the market. More than 20,000 were manufactured in China. In total, brands from countries that apply sanctions sold almost 130 units in the country last year, and since the invasion of Ukraine they have already exceeded 700 thousand.

The manufacturers claim that they prohibit exports and try to curb unauthorized sales, but admit that investigating fraud is slow and complex. For sanctions experts heard by Reuters, there are too many loopholes for enforcement to keep up with – and changing emblems is the easiest way to go unnoticed.