The mannequin, British know-how and the Russian battle machine

High-tech tools made by a British firm value $2.1 million (£1.6 million) has been bought to Russian firms linked to the navy, customs paperwork seen by BBC News recommend.

The paperwork point out that the British-made digicam lenses had been shipped from an organization registered in Kyrgyzstan, apparently run by a swimsuit mannequin.

The British producer, Beck Optronic Solutions, which labored on Britain’s Challenger 2 tanks and F35 fighter planes, instructed us it had not violated sanctions, had no dealings with Russia or Kyrgyzstan and was not conscious of shipments.

Our investigation raises questions concerning the effectiveness of sanctions imposed on Russia for the reason that begin of the battle in Ukraine.

The path led us to Valeria Baigascina, a 25-year-old initially from the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan however now residing in Belarus. A component-time mannequin, she repeatedly posts about her jet-setting way of life on social media. In the final two years he has visited Dubai, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Her social media offered no indication that she was additionally the director of an organization that had funneled hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ value of kit to sanctioned firms in Russia, as our search of customs paperwork revealed.

According to Belarusian registration information, Ms. Baigascina was the founder and director of an organization known as Rama Group LLC. Created in February 2023, it’s registered to an handle in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, 2,300 miles (3,713 km) from its house in Belarus.

Both international locations are former Soviet states with robust commerce ties to Russia. Belarus stays Moscow’s strongest ally in Europe.

Trade information reveals that since sanctions in opposition to Russia had been launched in February 2022, UK exports to Kyrgyzstan have elevated by greater than 300%. Experts suspect that some items are literally destined for Moscow.

Customs paperwork obtained by the BBC recommend that the Rama Group has made two shipments to Moscow of high-end optics that can be utilized in missiles, tanks and plane.

On the customs type the tools is listed as being manufactured by Beck Optronic Solutions in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. The firm produces high-precision targets utilized in concentrating on and surveillance methods.

While a few of its lenses are utilized in healthcare and engineering, Beck’s web site particulars broad navy and protection functions.

The lenses and optical know-how bought by Beck Optronics are particularly listed as items which can’t be legally exported to Russia or which require authorization from UK authorities earlier than any sale can happen.

The BBC has recognized, via customs paperwork, a complete of six shipments of merchandise allegedly made by Beck with a complete worth of $2.1m (£1.6m) and transferred to Moscow through Rama and a one other middleman firm, Shisan LLC.

In December 2023 and January 2024, Rama Group made its two shipments to Moscow itemizing them as “rotating digicam half.” These shipments went to Sol Group, an organization primarily based in Smolensk, 200 miles (320 km) southwest of Moscow, which was sanctioned by the United States.

It is unclear which worldwide route the products took: paperwork point out that among the shipments may very well have originated in Thailand.

Shisan LLC, one other Kyrgyz firm, was chargeable for 4 additional shipments of Beck Optronics merchandise value $1.5m (£1.1m).

Two of those shipments had been for “shortwave infrared digicam lenses” and went to the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant, which makes bomb-aiming tools and can be sanctioned due to its ties to the Russian navy.

Rama Group and Shisan share the identical handle in Bishkek, a contemporary five-story constructing in a affluent a part of town. However, once we visited, we had been instructed that Valeria Baigascina was overseas on a enterprise journey.

We discovered her quantity via her social media posts and made our accusations in opposition to her.

Ms. Baigascina mentioned she was the founding father of the corporate however bought it in May. He denied the allegations, saying that when he owned it, “nothing of the type was offered.” Then he hung up.

He later instructed us through electronic mail that the allegations had been “ridiculous” and primarily based on “false info.”

Our analysis reveals that in May this 12 months she bought Rama Group to her finest pal, Angelina Zhurenko, who runs a lingerie enterprise in Kazakhstan.

Ms. Zhurenko instructed us: “Business actions are carried out solely inside the framework of the present laws of Kyrgyzstan. The firm doesn’t violate any prohibitions. Any different info is fake.”

The director of the opposite middleman firm, Shisan, is listed as Evgeniy Anatolyevich Matveev. We offered our allegations to him through electronic mail.

He instructed us that our info was “false” and that he ran “a enterprise that solely equipped civilian items manufactured in Asian international locations.”

He continued: “This doesn’t contradict the legal guidelines of the state the place I work, and has nothing to do with US sanctions, as a result of it’s unattainable to ban the free commerce of Asian items accessible on the market and supply.”

There is not any proof that Beck Optronics was conscious of those shipments or that the lenses’ last vacation spot was Russia.

The firm instructed us it had nothing to do with the shipments: “Beck has not shipped something that’s opposite to UK export controls or any relevant sanctions within the UK. It had no dealings with any occasion or firm in Russia, Kyrgyzstan or Thailand, was not conscious that any shipments could be destined for any of those locations, and didn’t ship something to those locations.”

It is believed that among the listed tools was not even produced by the corporate and that customs paperwork might have been falsified.

But these alleged exports are a part of a a lot bigger image involving shipments from a number of sources.

Analysis of customs paperwork by Washington-based safety suppose tank C4ADS means that Shisan accomplished 373 shipments via Kyrgyzstan to Russia between July and December 2023.

Of these, 288 contained items that fall below the customs codes for “excessive precedence battle gadgets”.

In the identical six-month interval, Rama Group accomplished a complete of 1,756 shipments to Russia. Of these, 1,355 concerned gadgets on the “excessive precedence battlefield gadgets” record.

Its most up-to-date shipments, together with electronics from U.S. and British firms, went to a Russian firm known as Titan-Mikro, which has been below U.S. sanctions since May 2023 for working in Russia’s navy sector.

“When they promote this know-how to a buyer who’s doubtlessly a Russian finish consumer, they need to perceive completely effectively that it’s about killing folks,” says Olena Tregub of NAKO, Ukraine’s unbiased anti-corruption group.

She warns that flaws within the sanctions regime are costing lives.

“Without these applied sciences, these weapons would not fly. The brains of these ballistic missiles, the brains of these kamikaze drones, are fabricated from Western know-how,” he says.

International authorities are conscious of Kyrgyzstan’s position in evading sanctions.

In April, the UK’s then overseas secretary, David Cameron, traveled to Bishkek and urged Kyrgyzstan authorities to do extra to strengthen sanctions enforcement.

The Kyrgyz president expressed confidence that Lord Cameron’s official go to to his nation “will give new impetus to the multifaceted cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and the United Kingdom”.

David O’Sullivan, the EU’s particular envoy for sanctions implementation, instructed us that efforts to close down “illicit procurement networks” proceed and that “firms are required to undertake due diligence checks to know who’s the top consumer and the place the ‘battlefield objects’ finally find yourself.”