Instagram model supplied military optics to Russia in violation of sanctions

British military technology was shipped to Russia in a sanctions-violating manner through a Kyrgyz proxy company owned by an Instagram model.

This is stated in the BBC investigation.

High-tech equipment manufactured by a British firm worth $2.1 million was sold to Russian companies linked to the military, according to customs documents reviewed by BBC News.

The documents indicate that the British-made camera lenses were shipped by a company registered in Kyrgyzstan, allegedly run by a model named Valeria Baigascina.

Rama Group

Valeria Baigascina, a 25-year-old model, born in Kazakhstan, currently residing in Belarus. According to the Belarusian registration system, Ms. Baygascina was the founder and director of a company called Rama Group LLC.

The company was founded in February 2023 and is registered in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Customs documents obtained by the BBC show that Rama Group has made two shipments to Russia, circumventing sanctions, of high-tech optics that can be used in the production of missiles, tanks and aircraft.

An excerpt from the customs documents indicates that the manufacturer is Beck Optronic Ltd, the supplier is Rama Group LLC in Bishkek, and the country of destination is Russia.

The lenses and optical technologies sold by Beck Optronics are included in the list of goods that cannot be legally exported to Russia or require permission from the British authorities to be sold.

The customs documents allowed the BBC to identify a total of six consignments worth USD 2.1 million that were shipped to Russia through Rama and another intermediary company, Shisan LLC.

In December 2023 and January 2024, Rama shipped two consignments to Russia, describing them as “camera parts.” These shipments were destined for the sanctioned company Sol Group in Smolensk. It is unclear how the goods were delivered, but the documents indicate that some of the shipments may have originated in Thailand.

Shisan LLC

Shisan LLC is another Kyrgyz company responsible for violating sanctions. It transported four shipments of Beck Optronics products worth $1.5 million. Two of these shipments included “lenses for short-wave infrared cameras” and were sent to the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant.

Rama and Shisan share the same address in Bishkek. However, when journalists visited this address, they were told that Valeria was out of the country on a business trip.

Later, Baigascina stated that she had been the founder of the company, but had sold it in May. The investigation confirmed that the company was indeed sold in May 2024. The buyer was her best friend, Angelina Zhurenko, who owns a lingerie business in Kazakhstan.

In turn, Beck Optronics denied any supply of their products to Russia and violation of sanctions.

“Beck Optronics has not shipped anything in breach of UK export controls or sanctions in place in the UK. We have not had any dealings with any parties or companies in Russia, Kyrgyzstan or Thailand. We were unaware that any cargo might be destined for these points. And we did not send anything to these countries,” a company representative stated.

An analysis of the customs documents conducted by the Washington-based C4ADS think tank showed that from July to December 2023, Shisan had made 373 deliveries through Kyrgyzstan to Russia. 288 of them contained goods that fall under the customs codes of “especially important means of warfare.”

During the same six-month period, Rama Group made a total of 1,756 deliveries to Russia. Of these, 1,355 included goods from the list of “especially important munitions for warfare.”

Such an example of using a large number of small companies engaged in importing and exporting products is a classic way of circumventing the sanctions imposed on Russia. For example, at the end of October, the Indian pharmaceutical company Shreya Life Sciences was accused of exporting more than a thousand sanctioned servers optimized for artificial intelligence manufactured by Dell Technologies to Russia.