TBILISI, Georgia — Laughing and joking, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled through Pyongyang last week in a Russian Aurus limousine to showcase their strengthened anti-Western alliance.
The luxury sedan was intended to highlight Russia’s domestic strength and reduced dependence on imported technology and goods when it was unveiled in 2018.
However, customs records show that the company building the car uses millions of dollars in imported parts. Many of these come from South Korea, his country’s “greatest enemy,” Kim said.
The imports indicate Russia’s continued reliance on Western technology as it seeks to reverse Western efforts to cut it off from global supply chains as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine.
The two leaders took turns driving the armored limousine during Putin’s bombastic visit to North Korea. It was his first visit in almost a quarter of a century. It was a demonstration of the increasingly close ties between the two nuclear powers.
Russia imported equipment and parts worth at least US$34 million between 2018 and 2023 for the assembly of Aurus cars and motorcyclescustoms data seen by Reuters showed. Reuters does not have access to more recent data.
The imports included auto body parts, sensors, programmable controllers, switches, welding equipment and other components worth nearly $15.5 million imported from South Korea. Parts were also imported from ChinaUSA, Turkey, Italy and other EU countries.
The data shows that after the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, foreign deliveries for Aurus are still coming in. These are goods worth almost 16 million dollars, of which 5 million dollars were produced in South Korea and imported since February 2022.
Reuters could not specifically determine which imported foreign parts went into the car donated to Kim, and the imports did not violate sanctions – Aurus LLC was sanctioned by the United States in February 2024.
The Aurus sedan was developed by Russia’s state research institute NAMI, in collaboration with Russian automaker Sollers, which has since sold its stake.
Aurus Motors and its CEO Andrey Pankov did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the use of foreign parts, including parts from South Korea, in its vehicles.
Who the suppliers are
The company began official production in 2021 in Russia’s Tatarstan region, about 1,000 km (620 miles) from Moscow – before that it was made on a small, experimental scale at NAMI. It will start additional production in St. Petersburg later this year at Toyota’s former factory.
Toyota is one of several foreign automakers that have left the Russian market since the invasion, in what Russia calls a “special.” army operation”.
The exodus has left a gap that Chinese producers have quickly filled, quickly taking more than half of the market share and exposing Russia’s limited production capacity.
South Korean companies were among the largest suppliers to Aurus, including industrial equipment maker Kyungki Industrial Co, body parts manufacturer BYT CO LTD and batteries supplier Enertech International Inc.
The Italian plastic parts manufacturer Industrie Ilpea Spa and the Hong Kong company Rain Electronics also supplied goods.
An official at Kyungki Industrial Co confirmed that the company has supplied parts to Aurus LLC and continues to do so. The company is not concerned about possible sanctions, said the official, who declined to provide further details.
Rain Electronics could not be reached for comment. When a Reuters correspondent visited the address listed online as the company’s Hong Kong office, there was no sign of Rain Electronics on the floor listed online or in the office building.
BYT CO LTD, Enertech International and Industrie Ilpea Spa did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Retro-styled based on the Soviet-era ZIL limousine, the Aurus Senat is Russia’s official presidential car and was used by Putin at his presidential inaugurations in 2018 and 2024.
Putin has now given Kim, who is presumably a big car enthusiast, two Aurus cars as a gift. The first was during Kim’s visit to Russia in February and a slightly different model in North Korea in June.
Prices for Aurus cars – there are four models, including an SUV and an armored version – start from 46.625 million rubles ($528,356). Customers include Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhamedov.
According to data from Russian analytics agency Autostat, Aurus sold 107 cars in Russia in 2023. Aurus does not disclose production numbers.