Putin’s “fully Russian” Aurus cars hit by sanctions as key Italian and British suppliers cut off parts

12 December 2025 , 10:47

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Putin’s “fully Russian” Aurus cars hit by sanctions as key Italian and British suppliers cut off parts

This summer, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly praised Aurus luxury cars, stressing that the vehicles are a 100% Russian-made product and noting that he personally uses one.

However, investigations indicate that the reality behind Aurus production is far less self-sufficient.

According to information uncovered by Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, the Aurus manufacturer FSUE NAMI is currently facing serious difficulties after losing access to critical components from Italy and the United Kingdom because of sanctions. As a result, the state enterprise has been forced into a series of lawsuits, many of which now appear effectively hopeless.

One example involves the Italian company AUTOPART s.r.l., which stopped deliveries to the Russian intermediary Autoforma due to sanctions. Autoforma, in turn, failed to supply FSUE NAMI. Although the contracts were signed during the war, only a small number of components were smuggled into Russia, and with extreme delays. NAMI demanded the return of its advance payment and contractual penalties — around 9 million rubles, nearly the full value of the contract.

After that, Autoforma effectively vanished. The company stopped responding to correspondence, its bank accounts at Raiffeisenbank and Banca Intesa were frozen, and Russia’s Federal Tax Service has since moved to liquidate the firm. The United Legal Company in Samara, which formally managed Autoforma, claimed it had no connection to the company’s real management. As a result, FSUE NAMI has little chance of recovering the funds.

Autoforma’s founders included the Swiss firm KWS Engineering SA and its president Mauro Merlo, an Italian citizen. AUTOPART s.r.l. began supplying parts in 2016 — the same year Merlo became head of KWS Engineering. Despite reporting a 33 million ruble profit in 2022, Autoforma ended the following year with a 2.2 million ruble loss, even though NAMI’s advance payments were made on time. KWS Engineering itself entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2023, during which it emerged that the company’s accounts were completely empty, with no explanation for where the money went.

Problems also arose with British supplier BEE Lighting LTD, which was contracted to deliver interior “Style Lighting” kits for Aurus vehicles in late 2021. The company simply failed to fulfill the contract and disappeared. FSUE NAMI assessed £79,000 in penalties, but British firms have ignored Russian court rulings, citing sanctions as a jurisdictional shield.

These cases, investigators say, are only a small part of a much broader problem. Against this backdrop, FSUE NAMI’s recent decision to transfer part of its Aurus stake to Gazprom appears less coincidental — the state gas giant is well accustomed to absorbing and managing large financial losses.

Elizabeth Baker

Technology & Business Editor