Moscow Feeds Its War Economy: Networks of Shell Companies and Customs Traps

Tangles of shell companies are facilitating this sanctions violation, according to Gonzalo Saiz, an analyst for the Financial Crimes Centre at The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI). "These methods are becoming incredibly complex. We used to check two levels of ownership to find sanctions evasion, now you have thirty levels of ownership and you have to plough through endless shell companies."