The mannequin, British tech and Russia’s warfare machine

Excessive-tech gear made by a UK agency value $2.1m (£1.6m) has been offered to firms in Russia linked to the navy, customs paperwork seen by BBC Information counsel.

The paperwork point out the British-made digital camera lenses have been shipped by an organization registered in Kyrgyzstan, apparently run by a swimwear mannequin.

The UK producer, Beck Optronic Options, which has labored on British Challenger 2 tanks and F35 fighter jets, informed us it had not breached sanctions, had no dealings with Russia or Kyrgyzstan, and was unaware of the shipments.

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

The path led us to Valeria Baigascina, a 25-year-old, initially from the central Asian state of Kazakhstan however now dwelling in Belarus. A component-time mannequin, she posts frequently about her jet-set life-style on social media. Up to now two years she has visited Dubai, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Her social media gave no indication she was additionally the director of a agency which had channelled hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ value of apparatus to sanctioned firms in Russia, as our search of customs paperwork revealed.

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

Each international locations are former Soviet states with sturdy buying and selling hyperlinks to Russia. Belarus stays Moscow’s strongest ally in Europe.

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

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

The gear is listed on the customs kind as being made by Beck Optronic Options in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. The corporate manufactures high-precision lenses utilized in focusing on and surveillance methods.

Although a few of its lenses are utilized in healthcare and engineering, Beck’s web site particulars intensive navy and defence functions.

The lenses and optical know-how offered by Beck Optronics are particularly listed as items that both can’t be legally exported to Russia, or that want permission from UK authorities earlier than any sale can happen.

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

In December 2023 and January 2024, Rama Group made its two shipments to Moscow itemizing them as “rotating a part of digital camera”. These shipments went to Sol Group, an organization primarily based in Smolensk, 200 miles (320km) south-west of Moscow, which has been sanctioned by the US.

It’s not clear what worldwide route the products took – the paperwork point out a number of 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 these shipments concerned “short-wave infrared digital camera lens” and went to the Ural Optical & Mechanical Plant, which makes bomb-aiming gear and can also be sanctioned due to its hyperlinks to the Russian navy.

Rama Group and Shisan share the identical handle in Bishkek – a contemporary five-storey block in a affluent a part of town. Nevertheless, after we visited we have been informed Valeria Baigascina was overseas on a enterprise journey.

We discovered her quantity via her social media posts and put our allegations to her.

Ms Baigascina mentioned she was the founding father of the corporate however had offered it in Could. She denied the allegations, saying that when she had owned it, “nothing like that was equipped”. She then hung up.

Later, by e mail, she informed us the accusations have been “ridiculous” and primarily based on “false info”.

Our analysis reveals that in Could this yr she offered Rama Group to her greatest pal, Angelina Zhurenko, who runs a lingerie enterprise in Kazakhstan.

Ms Zhurenko informed us: “Buying and selling actions are carried out solely throughout the framework of the present laws of Kyrgyzstan. The corporate doesn’t violate any prohibitions. Every other info is fake.”

The director of the opposite middleman firm, Shisan, is listed as Evgeniy Anatolyevich Matveev. We put our allegations to him by e mail.

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

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

There’s no proof that Beck Optronics knew about these shipments or that the ultimate vacation spot of the lenses was Russia.

The corporate informed us it had nothing to do with the shipments: “Beck has not shipped something opposite to UK export controls or any sanctions making use of within the UK. It has had no dealings with any celebration or firm in Russia, Kyrgyzstan or Thailand, was not conscious that any shipments may finally be destined for any of those locations and has not shipped something to those locations.”

It believes a number of the gear listed wasn’t even made by the corporate and that customs paperwork could have been falsified.

However these alleged exports are a part of a a lot larger image involving shipments from various sources.

Evaluation of customs paperwork by the Washington-based safety assume tank C4ADS counsel that Shisan accomplished 373 shipments by way of Kyrgyzstan to Russia between July and December 2023.

Of those, 288 contained items that fall beneath customs codes for “high-priority battlefield objects”.

Over the identical six-month interval, Rama Group accomplished a complete of 1,756 shipments to Russia. Of those, 1,355 have been for objects on the “high-priority battlefield objects” checklist.

Its most up-to-date shipments, together with electronics by US and UK firms, went to a Russian firm named Titan-Mikro, which has been topic to US sanctions since Could 2023 for working inside Russia’s navy sector.

“After they promote this know-how to a consumer who’s probably a Russian end-user, they totally ought to perceive that that is to kill individuals,” says Olena Tregub from NAKO, Ukraine’s unbiased anti-corruption organisation.

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

“With out these applied sciences, these weapons wouldn’t fly. The mind of these ballistic missiles, the mind of these kamikaze drones, are fabricated from Western know-how,” she says.

Worldwide authorities are conscious of Kyrgyzstan’s function in sanctions evasion.

In April, UK’s international secretary on the time, David Cameron, travelled to Bishkek and urged the Kyrgyz authorities to do extra to tighten their sanctions’ compliance.

The Kyrgyz president expressed confidence that Lord Cameron’s official go to to his nation would “give new impetus to multifaceted co-operation between Kyrgyzstan and the UK”.

David O’Sullivan, the EU’s Particular Envoy for the Implementation of Sanctions informed us that efforts proceed to close down “illicit procurement networks”, and that “firms are required to undertake due diligence checks to grasp who’s the ultimate end-user and the place ‘battlefield objects’ find yourself finally”.