Latvian national airline airBaltic denies information published by the Russian independent media Verstka that the airline may have violated European Union (EU) sanctions on cooperation with Russian companies in its aviation fuel purchases, airBaltic said in a statement on March 14.
Verstka published that Latvian airline airBaltic likely purchased fuel for its aircraft from the Russian company TatneftAviaService until March 2024, violating EU sanctions, according to data obtained by Verstka.
At the same time, the air carrier and Latvian authorities claim that they have not worked with Russian fuel suppliers since the first months of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A post published on March 1, 2022, on the official airBaltic Facebook page showed its solidarity with Ukraine saying,
"Our thoughts and hearts are with the brave Ukrainian nation."
The carrier also began to provide "special support to Ukrainian passengers", opened a hotline in the Ukrainian language and encouraged Ukrainians to find work. And in October 2022, airBaltic reported on successful cooperation with Ukrposhta.
Almost three years later, the company appears to be sticking to its stated position. For example, in November 2024, a Ukrainian version of the airBaltic website was launched. That same month, the carrier launched direct flights between Riga and Rzeszow, Poland, the closest airport to the Ukrainian border.
But all this time, airBaltic probably continued to purchase Russian-made aviation kerosene. This is the conclusion reached by Verstka after studying the Russian closed customs database, as well as the ImportGenius archive.
It follows from this data that the airline attempted to make 28 fuel purchases from Russia from February 2022 until at least March 2024, 13 times successfully. Another 15 declarations in the closed customs database are marked as cancelled (code 50). In fact, these transactions could have been completed.
According to an expert in the field of customs control, with whom Verstka spoke on condition of anonymity, such a code does not mean that the goods were not released abroad: the declaration can be cancelled after delivery at the stage of its rechecking in order to hide the fact of sending the goods. Of the 15 cancelled deliveries, 11 were in 2022, one in 2023 and three in 2024.
As per the allegations, two successful purchases took place immediately after the start of the war - in February and March 2022 under contracts with Gazpromneft-Aero. The remaining 11 are dated 2023 in sources, and the sender is listed as Tatneftaeroservice. In total, airBaltic, according to declarations, imported 3,100 tons of jet fuel for 206.7 million rubles (2.3 million dollars).
From the description of the “goods” filled in by the sender, it follows that the jet fuel was intended “for refueling civil aircraft of “air baltic corporation a/s” on international flights.” The import was regular – at least once a month in 2023.
The volume of each delivery also hardly changed and amounted to one hundred tons. airBaltic was listed as a buyer of one thousand tons twice – in February and March 22.
In both databases, the goods are listed under the code "2710192100" - "fuel for jet engines", which matches the description. Such deliveries from Russia are prohibited by EU sanctions.
As per Verstka, Customs data can be used to find out who manufactured the goods and in what country, as well as who sent them, where and to whom. In both databases, airBaltic is almost always listed as the “recipient”. Only two declarations have a dash in this column, and both times the sender is listed as “Gazpromneft-Aero”. At the same time, the description of the goods states that they were intended for airBaltic.
The "recipient country code" and "destination country" are filled in the declarations much less frequently. Only in the last nine purchases, instead of zero, "LV" appears in the first column, i.e. Latvia, and the word "UNKNOWN" appears in the second. However, the legal address of airBaltic and the code of the trading country are indicated everywhere.
The declarations also indicate the transport code by which the goods are transported. In almost all cases, this field is empty. The exception is the above-mentioned nine purchases, where the code " 40 " is entered - air transport. "Verstka" was unable to find flights that could deliver such fuel.
According to an expert in the field of customs control, with whom Verstka spoke on condition of anonymity, the goods could have been exported from Russia by air to a third, intermediate country, and from there delivered to Latvia by any other means of transport.
"When exporting, code 40 is indicated as a type of transport only at the Russian border," says Verstka's source. "That is, the goods crossed the Russian border by air. Further [at the next points on the route] there may be a different meaning."
Tatneftaviaservice: government contracts worth millions of euros, clients under sanctions, corrupt ties with Tatarstan authorities Although there were two senders, the largest in all respects was Tatneftyaviaservice.
The company's website lists the main activities as the supply and sale of aviation fuel; provision of aircraft refueling services at Kazan International Airport, as well as the receipt and storage of fuel in a warehouse.
It also states that Tatneftyaviaservice is a reliable partner of Russian and “international airlines,” including FlyDubai and Euro Jet, with whom it “works under direct contracts.”
The company was created in 1998 with the participation of PAO Tatneft, one of the largest Russian oil producing companies. Today, Tatneft owns only 0.03% of the company. The remaining 99.97% is owned by OOO Matrix.
As Verstka has found out, it is managed by the family of businessman Vladimir Polyakov, one of the owners of the oilfield services holding TagraS, which is partially part of Tatneft's structures .
According to Tatneftyaviaservice's accounting data, sales revenues doubled in 2023 and 2024 compared to the pre-war period. Tatneftyaviaservice's net profit has also increased in the last two years - from 315 million rubles in the pre-war 2021 to 520 million in 2023 and 592 million in 2024.
