A non-existent company from Gabon supplies the Russians with the most spare parts for aircraft

A strange company called Ter Assala Parts, which, according to Russian records, should be based in the Gabonese capital of Libreville, however, according to the commercial register, does not exist in its country at all, and there is only a residential building at the address of its alleged headquarters, the website pointed out. He added that a citizen of Kyrgyzstan is listed as the recipient of profits from this company.

But last year, the aforementioned company managed to do big business – it exported aviation accessories from Gabon and the Maldives to Russia for a total of 1.48 billion US dollars. These included 15 used engines for Boeing-737 and Airbus A320/A321 manufactured by the American companies Honeywell, International Aero Engines and CFM.

The passengers left Moscow only on the third plane. Russian fleets decimated by sanctions

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According to Russian customs records, however, the company also supplied oxygen masks, fuel regulators, computerized collision avoidance systems, fuel gauges and other accessories. At the same time, the first aircraft parts from Gabon did not go to Russia until August 2023.

Three months before that, the United States eliminated the main channel for the supply of imported spare aircraft parts to Russia – businessmen Oleg Paculya and Vasiliy Besedin were then arrested for evading sanctions. The scheme involved MIC P&I, registered in Florida, as well as intermediary companies and bank accounts in third countries. According to The New York Times, suppliers were thus receiving false information about end customers. At the same time, clients included the large Russian airlines Aeroflot, S7, Poběda, Ural Airlines, Utair and Rossija, the MT website pointed out.

Both Airbus and Boeing stopped technical support and spare parts supplies to Russian airlines as early as March 2022, shortly after the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, Western countries have introduced a number of sanctions to prevent Moscow from gaining critical technologies. Russia is able to circumvent these restrictions, but maintaining its aircraft in good technical condition is still challenging. Even the local media admit that sometimes it is necessary to “cannibalize” machines for spare parts.

Help against the oil embargo?

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) already marked Russia with a “red flag” in September 2022 based on a flight safety audit. Of the 193 countries that are members of the organization, flight safety is currently rated this poorly in only six: in addition to Russia, they are Bhutan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Liberia and Zimbabwe.

In Gabon, General Brice Oligui Nguema took power last year after a military coup. A surge in the number of ships registered under the Gabonese flag has recently raised suspicions that the country is helping Moscow circumvent the oil embargo.