Russian drivers face car losses as Kazakhstan loans unravel
They thought they had outsmarted the system and might now lose their cars. Russians who devised a plan to obtain Korean and Japanese cars from Kazakhstan will now have to return them. It's enough for them to encounter the police on their journey or turn up at an office. However, there is a loophole they might exploit.
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, car manufacturers from Europe, Japan, Korea, and the USA halted car sales to the world's largest country. Over time, international sanctions made it impossible for Russian car dealers to operate smoothly. Naturally, Chinese brands quickly began to fill the gap, and by 2024, they could make up 50 to 60 per cent of the Russian primary market. However, not everyone was satisfied with such vehicles, hence the emergence of so-called parallel imports.
This involves importing cars through countries friendly to Russia. As a result, new Western-branded cars didn't officially reach Russia, but the market suddenly expanded in some countries. Here, besides China, Kyrgyzstan is the undisputed leader. According to the Destatis statistical office, in 2021, the value of cars and parts imported to Kyrgyzstan from Germany was €3 million. In 2023, it was €293 million. Kazakhstan is also one of the countries from which cars were imported to Russia, circumventing sanctions. This may have repercussions for some Russian drivers.
According to the autostat.ru service, about 800 Russian users of Korean and Japanese brand cars are at risk of losing their vehicles. These cars were sold in Russian showrooms as parallel imports but acquired by criminals. They offered Kazakh citizens approximately €4,320 for taking out a car loan in their name and purchasing the car. The cars were intended for Russian taxi companies, and the intermediaries promised to pay the installments. The agreements were only verbal.
Predictably, shortly after obtaining the cars, the intermediaries stopped paying the installments. The banks approached the Kazakh "frontmen" demanding payment, who then started reporting to the police. As a result, about 800 cars driving on Russian roads are being sought after as the property of banks operating in Kazakhstan.
According to autostat.ru, the cars are formally registered not only in Russia but also in Kazakhstan. Their Russian users may lose them with any contact with the police or an office - for example, when exchanging documents. In such a scenario, the cars will be impounded in police parking lots, but this does not mean the matter will end there.
Owners of illegally imported cars from Kazakhstan can demand compensation from the dealership where they bought the vehicle. However, as autostat.ru notes, the dealerships involved in this practice—mainly from St. Petersburg—may soon declare bankruptcy to avoid lawsuits. Drivers can still approach the court to request the legalization of the cars, arguing that they purchased the cars in good faith.
Many Russians are willing to take the risk of purchasing a reputable brand car from an uncertain source because the alternatives are not appealing. The options are Russian-brand models or cars from China. The latter are considered less reliable in Russia than European models, and half of the buyers of cars from China made such a purchase solely due to a lack of alternatives.
