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UK manufacturing exporters who see leaps in sales to countries friendly with Russia should “raise a red flag”, a sanctions expert has told MPs.
Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute, said in evidence to an inquiry on the effectiveness of sanctions against Russia that UK companies seeing such spikes should not be going “to the pub” to celebrate.
He was speaking generally amid work by Sky News that identified a surge in sales of UK-made cars to Russia’s neighbours, most notably Azerbaijan, with luxury vehicles seen in Moscow showrooms this year.
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Analysis showed that the UK exported £273m of vehicles to Azerbaijan last year, a 1,860% increase compared with the five-year period preceding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Separate data highlighted an unprecedented increase in car exports to Russia from Azerbaijan.
The UK car industry’s lobby group, the SMMT, has insisted that British carmakers are not selling cars to Russia and are in full compliance with the sanctions regime.
Mr Keatinge told the Treasury select committee’s inquiry that manufacturing exporters should be more proactive in policing their sales, rather than the onus being placed on banks to flag concerns about their corporate clients’ activities.
He explained that was especially prevalent in the United States, which issued an executive order to that effect in December.
Mr Keatinge said of manufacturers’ responsibilities: “You should have had it drilled into you by now that if suddenly sales are…
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