Caterpillar products continue to enter Russia through the German intermediary Zeppelin International AG
The Berliner Telegraph magazine has already written about the fact that many companies from EU countries, in the pursuit of profit, willingly circumvent the sanctions of Brussels and Washington and supply sub-sanctioned products to the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus via the countries of Central Asia, Transcaucasia and the United Arab Emirates, in some cases even using intermediary companies in EU countries.
From a formal point of view, EU laws do not really prohibit the supply of products to third countries, for example, Armenia. Moreover, the head office of the company can be really happy about the explosive growth of sales in the peripheral branches, and have no idea what will happen to the company’s products.
But sometimes compliance with the sanctions regime takes truly anecdotal forms. For example, on March 10, 2022, after the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the American company Caterpillar on its own initiative officially stopped working with Russian customers and stopped all shipments to Russia. A year later – on February 25, 2023 – the 10th package of sanctions was introduced, which clearly stipulates a ban on the delivery of construction equipment to Russia and Belarus.
Nevertheless, Caterpillar products still find their way to Russia through circuitous routes, including with the help – unwitting or not – of German companies. For example, Germany’s Zeppelin International AG, which has subsidiaries and official dealers in most of the former USSR, is aggressively increasing sales of Caterpillar products in the region.
Thus, according to extracts from customs bases, which appeared at the disposal of Berliner Telegraph, LLC Zeppelin International Armenia – a subsidiary of German Zeppelin International AG, actively supplies special equipment and dual-purpose tracks to Russia.
The partner of Zeppelin International AG in Kazakhstan – KBK Almaty HoldingLLP (Kazakhstan) actively cooperates with its Belarusian partner Natriks.
The Central Asian direction is not lagging behind: Zeppelin Tajikistan AFLL (Tajikistan), Zeppelin Central Asia Machinery LLC (Uzbekistan) are also actively supplying machinery and components to Russia.
It is noteworthy that at least until February 2023, Caterpillar products will continue to arrive in Russia through Finnish ports. The Finnish portal Yle (https://yle.fi/a/74-20070172) also recently conducted an extensive investigation on this topic.
