So States DOJ

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday, 02 March 2023, that two U.S. citizens had been arrested in Kansas City for allegedly exporting American aviation technology to Russia. In addition to violating U.S. export controls, the alleged crimes directly contradict ongoing U.S. trade and technological sanctions imposed against Russia in response to Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. officials charged Cyril Gregory Buyanovsky, 59, and Douglas Robertson, 55, with conspiracy, exporting controlled goods without a necessary license, falsifying export filings, and illegally smuggling goods.

If convicted, the men face maximum sentences of up to twenty-years for each count of unlicensed exporting of controlled goods, up to ten-years for smuggling, and up to five-years for counts of conspiracy and falsifying records.

The Department of Justice alleges Buyanovsky and Robertson supplied “Western avionics equipment” to Russian companies through the KanRus Trading Company—a business the two men owned and operated. The DOJ further alleges the pair, in addition to the aforementioned transgressions, provided repair services to U.S. equipment illegally installed in Russian-made aircraft.

The indictment handed down by DOJ prosecutors states Buyanovsky and Robertson evaded U.S. export laws pertaining to Russia by willfully misrepresenting the “true end users” and final destinations of the equipment, and by shipping subject equipment to various European countries, including Germany, and not directly to Russia.

According to the DOJ, in February 2022, as Russian troops commenced marching upon Ukraine and Moscow launched air strikes at Kyiv, U.S. authorities detained a shipment of aviation equipment exported by KanRus. Notwithstanding subsequent notification by the U.S. Department of Commerce that a special license was required to export equipment to Russia, Buyanovsky and Robertson went on shipping aerospace technology to Russia—by way of Armenia and Cyprus—throughout the summer and sans license.

Western sanctions levied in the weeks following the onset of Russian belligerence in Ukraine have—for over one-year—effectively impaired Russia’s access to advanced technologies produced in Western countries. The Russian Federation has since struggled to import critical technologies the likes of avionics and semiconductors. The increasing scarcity of such components and systems has compelled Russian military and civilian entities, including air-carriers, to “cannibalize existing airline parts they can no longer access abroad,” the State Department set forth.

FMI: www.justice.gov