London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Britain blocks luxury exports to Russia worth hundreds of millions

Britain blocks luxury exports to Russia worth hundreds of millions

Government says ban intended to ensure ‘oligarchs and other members of the elite’ are deprived of goods
Russian oligarchs will no longer have access to baubles such as the cars, artworks and designer handbags sold by British companies, after the government blocked exports worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Last year, UK firms in total sold £2.6bn worth of goods to Russia, the biggest slice of which was cars, at around £400m, as wealthy Russians splashed out on prestigious marques such as Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls-Royce.

Many luxury goods companies have already voluntarily stopped doing business in Russia but the ban would “make sure oligarchs and other members of the elite are deprived of access to luxury goods”, the government said.

Helen Brocklebank, the chief executive of Walpole, the trade body for the UK luxury sector, said it was “fully supportive” of the sanctions.

“All of our members have immediately complied with the sanctions imposed and are working to support local employees in any way they can,” she said of its 250 members which include Bentley, Burberry and Rolls-Royce.

The clampdown on Kremlin-linked wealth has thrown the spotlight on Britain’s art market amid fears Russian oligarchs could use legal loopholes to evade sanctions.

Sotheby’s said it had already stopped the import and export of artefacts to and from Russia and its office in Moscow was currently closed. The company, which does not conduct auctions in Russia, promised to “rigorously follow the sanctions and regulations”.

Christie’s, which has also shut its office in Moscow to the public, said it had taken the decision to cancel its Russian art sales which were due to take place this summer in London.

Cars are the UK’s number one export to Russia with annual sales of £386m – or nearly 15% of all exports to the country - according to the most recent data from the Department for International Trade. The other big markets are for medicine, machinery and power generators, the data showed.

Despite its prominence in the export data, Russia is relatively small market for UK car plants – it is thought that the UK exports fewer than 10,000 cars a year to Russia out of an annual production on 860,000 in 2021. However, there are Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls-Royce showrooms in Moscow and St Petersburg, as well as dealers stocking cars from BMW-owned Mini.

Although overall sales volumes in Russia are low, the expensive cars being sold there have high profit margins, said David Bailey, professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham. The export ban was “another hit” for British carmakers who, he said, are already facing difficulties due to ongoing shortages of semiconductor computer chips.

Bailey said British brands such as Range Rover sold well in Russia in part because of the “state of the roads”. It is “partly about the premium and luxury nature of British cars but also their off-road capabilities”, he said.

“Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) pulled out basically because they thought was the right thing to do,” said Bailey, who added that the collapse of the rouble would also make it difficult for companies to price expensive cars. “It’s not good news for the likes of Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley and Rolls-Royce.”

JLR and Aston Martin have already paused deliveries to Russia. A spokesperson for Bentley Motors said it too had also stopped the export of cars destined for Russia “until further notice”.

The scale of spending on luxury goods in Russia is not of the same magnitude as in countries such as China and the US. The annual spend on cars, jewellery and designer fashion is put at about £7bn – a figure split between the domestic market and high-end stores of London and Dubai – by analysts at the investment bank Jefferies.

Earlier this month Burberry, one of Britain’s most famous exports, temporarily closed its three outlets in Russia which includes a shop in Moscow’s famous Red Square.

The UK government is yet to provide a detailed breakdown of the luxury goods covered by its export ban but analysts think it will be similar to the EU’s, which includes clothing, accessories, precious stones and works of art. It is not clear if Scotch whisky will be on it too; while famously vodka drinkers, Russians are also partial to a malt, with 42m bottles, worth nearly £28m, exported there last year.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×