Ukraine-Russia War: The supermodel, British technology and the Russian war machine

High-tech equipment manufactured by a British company worth US$2.1 million (1.263 million CFA francs) was sold to Russian companies linked to the army, according to customs documents seen by the BBC.

The documents indicate that the UK-made camera lenses were shipped by a company registered in Kyrgyzstan, apparently run by a supermodel…

The British manufacturer, Beck Optronic Solutions, which worked on the British Challenger 2 tanks and F35 fighters, told us that it had not violated sanctions, had no contact with Russia or the Kyrgyzstan, and that he was not aware of the shipments.

Our investigation raises questions about the effectiveness of sanctions imposed on Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The investigation led us to Valeria Baigascina, a 25-year-old woman originally from the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan, but now living in Belarus. A part-time model, she regularly posts images of her jet-setting lifestyle on social media. Over the past two years, she has visited Dubai, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

There is no indication on her social media that she is the director of a company that shipped equipment worth millions of US dollars to companies targeted by Russian sanctions, as our search of customs documents revealed .

According to Belarusian registration details, Ms Baigascina was the founder and director of a company called Rama Group LLC. Established in February 2023, it is registered in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan – approximately 3,700 km from its home in Belarus.

Both countries are former Soviet republics, with close trade ties with Russia. Belarus remains Moscow’s strongest ally in Europe.

Trade data shows that since the introduction of sanctions against Russia in February 2022, UK exports to Kyrgyzstan have increased by more than 300%. Experts suspect that some goods are actually destined for Moscow.

Customs documents obtained by the BBC suggest the Rama Group shipped two shipments of high-end optics to Moscow that could be used in missiles, tanks and planes.

The equipment is listed on the customs form as being manufactured by Beck Optronic Solutions in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. The company manufactures high-precision lenses used in targeting and surveillance systems.

Although some of its lenses are used in the healthcare and engineering industries, Beck’s website details many military and defense applications.

Lenses and optical technology sold by Beck Optronics are specifically listed as goods which either cannot be legally exported to Russia or require authorization from UK authorities before a sale can take place.

The BBC identified, through customs documents, a total of six shipments of products allegedly manufactured by Beck, worth a total of US$2.1 million (1.263 billion CFA francs) and transferred to Moscow via Rama and another intermediary company, Shisan LLC.

In December 2023 and January 2024, the Rama group made two expeditions to Moscow calling them a “rotating camera part”. These shipments were sent to Sol Group, a company based in Smolensk, 320 km southwest of Moscow, which was sanctioned by the United States.

The route taken by the goods has not been identified. The documents indicate that some shipments may come from Thailand.

Shisan LLC, another Kyrgyz company, was responsible for four other shipments of Beck Optronics products worth US$1.5 million (869 million CFA francs).

Two of these shipments were for “short-wave infrared camera lenses” and were sent to the Ural Optical & Mechanical Plant, which manufactures aiming and precision shooting accessories, and is also sanctioned due to its ties to the Russian army.

Rama Group and Shisan share the same address in Bishkek – a modern five-story building in an upscale part of the city. When we visited her, we were told that Valeria Baigascina was abroad on a business trip.

We found her number through her social media posts and told her about the allegations against her.

Ms Baigascina said she was the founder of the business but sold it in May. She denied the allegations, saying that when she owned it, “nothing like that was provided.” She then hung up.

Later, via email, she told us the accusations were “ridiculous” and based on “false information.”

Our research shows that in May this year she sold Rama Group to her best friend, Angelina Zhurenko, who runs a lingerie business in Kazakhstan.

Ms. Zhurenko told us: “Business activities are carried out exclusively within the framework of the current legislation of Kyrgyzstan. The company does not violate any laws. Any other information is false.”

Evgeniy Anatolyevich Matveev is introduced as the director of the Shisan company. We shared our information with him by email.

He told us they were “fake” and that he ran “a company exclusively supplying civilian goods made in Asian countries.”

He continued: “This does not violate the laws of the state in which I work and has nothing to do with US sanctions, because it is impossible to prohibit the free trade of Asian goods available for sale and upon delivery.”

There is no evidence that Beck Optronics was aware of these shipments or that Russia was the final destination of the lenses.

The company told us it had nothing to do with the shipments: “Beck did not ship anything in violation of UK export controls or UK sanctions. She has had no contact with a party or business in Russia, Kyrgyzstan or Thailand, was not aware that shipments could ultimately be sent to any of these destinations…”

She believes that some of the equipment mentioned was not even manufactured by her employees, and that customs documents may have been falsified.

But these alleged exports are part of a much larger picture, which involves shipments from multiple sources.

Analysis of customs documents by Washington-based security think tank C4ADS suggests Shisan made 373 shipments via Kyrgyzstan, to Russia, between July and December 2023.

Of those, 288 contained goods that fall under customs codes for “high priority battlefield items.”

During the same six-month period, Rama Group made a total of 1,756 shipments to Russia. Of these, 1,355 were for items on the “high priority battlefield items” list.

Its most recent shipments, including electronic equipment from U.S. and British companies, went to a Russian company named Titan-Mikro, which has been subject to U.S. sanctions since May 2023 for operating in the Russian military sector.

“When they sell this technology to a customer who is potentially a Russian end user, they must fully understand that this is used to kill people,” says Olena Tregub of NAKO, Ukraine’s independent anti-corruption organization.

She says gaps in the sanctions regime are costing lives.

“Without these technologies, these weapons would not fly. The brains of these ballistic missiles, the brains of these kamikaze drones, are made of Western technology,” she said.

International authorities are aware of Kyrgyzstan’s role in following up on sanctions.

In April, David Cameron, who was Britain’s foreign secretary, visited Bishkek and urged Kyrgyz authorities to do more to strengthen their compliance with sanctions.

The Kyrgyz president expressed confidence that Mr Cameron’s official visit to his country would give “new impetus to multi-faceted cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and the United Kingdom”.

David O’Sullivan, the European Union’s special envoy for sanctions implementation, told us that efforts continue to dismantle “illicit supply networks”, and that “companies are required to carry out due diligence checks to understand who the end user is and where the ‘battlefield items’ ultimately end up.”