Investigative journalists tracking Russia’s trade deals since its attack on Ukraine have published an extensive report on its trade through British Overseas Territories, in which Bermuda features second on the list.

The Transparency International article, also reported yesterday by The Guardian, looked into “all known Russian international trade transactions” in which companies registered in OTs acted as intermediaries, its author, Vladislav Netyaev, told The Royal Gazette.

The report was written in exile by the anti-corruption group’s Russia office.

The organisation flagged up $8 billion routed through British island jurisdictions since the invasion, launched four years ago on Tuesday, prompted swift sanctions by Britain and the European Union.

Mr Netyaev said: “Speaking of Bermuda, I can highlight that, according to our estimates, the total volume of such trade from February 2022 to January 2025 amounted to approximately US$3 billion.”

He added: “Most of these transactions involved the supply of equipment in the oil and gas industry by large Russian companies, some of which are already subject to US sanctions, such as Taskom JSC.

“Of particular note were transactions involving business jets for the families of Russian politically exposed persons, as well as transactions involving Russian helicopters.”

Mr Netyaev emphasised that overall the level of such transactions had declined.

“In 2022, we identified 2,630 such transactions, 523 in 2023 and 45 in 2024, but we remain concerned about the intermediary role played by Bermuda-registered firms in the context of concealing illegally obtained Russian assets and potentially circumventing sanctions. In our view, such loopholes remain today.”

The Guardian article quoted a Bermuda representative on the island’s “robust compliance” with British sanctions in force here, which bar “a range of activities and transactions and contain specific exceptions and licensing grounds”.

The sanctions imposed four years ago required the freezing of assets of organisations of “strategic significance” to the Russian Government, and mandated strict sanctions on financial transactions.

Among other knock-on effects, it came with a substantial loss to the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority, which had to suspend airworthiness certificates for more than 700 Bermudian-registered aircraft operated by Russian airlines.

Russia’s responses included attempting to re-register the aircraft, and adding the island to its “unfriendly countries” list.

Transparency International analysed roughly 29,000 transactions using OT-registered firms, and reported that more than 90 per cent got routed through companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda.

BVI was linked to $4.4 billion in trade deals, with Bermuda coming second. The article also tracked transactions through the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar.

For Bermuda, roughly 3,200 transactions from the start of the invasion to January 2025 were reportedly valued at $2.96 billion.

Aside from the oil and gas equipment, the watchdogsaid Russian companies were involved in “the purchase and sale of helicopters and business jets”.

Its article concluded: “Most of the transactions studied were carried out in 2022. In our opinion, this can be attributed to the double-edged impact of sanctions, which increased transaction costs due to increasingly complex logistics and heightened counterparty risk.

“However, the same payment methods for Russian trade remain in place today.”