Achi news desk-
When Zoya, 62, who lives in Moscow, was planning a trip to Italy to visit her daughter last August, she saw the perfect opportunity to buy the Apple Watch she had dreamed of owning on it for a long time.
Officially, Apple does not sell its products in Russia.
The California-based tech giant was one of the first companies to announce it would leave the country in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
But the week before her trip, Zoya made a surprising discovery while browsing Yandex.Market, one of Russia’s many answers to Amazon, where she regularly shops.
Not only was the Apple Watch available for sale on the website, it was cheaper than in Italy.
Zoya bought the watch without a moment’s hesitation.
The serial code on the watch delivered to her home confirmed that it was manufactured by Apple in 2022 and was intended for sale in the United States.
“At the store, they explained to me that these are genuine Apple products coming into Russia through parallel imports,” Zoya, who asked to be referred to only by her first name, told Al Jazeera.
“I thought it was much easier to buy online than to look for a store in an unfamiliar country.”
Almost 1,400 companies, including many of the best-known international brands, have announced since February 2022 that they would end or dial back their operations in Russia in protest of military aggression Moscow against Ukraine.
But two years after the invasion, many of these companies’ products are still widely sold in Russia, in many cases in defiance of Western-led sanctions, a month-long investigation by Al Jazeera has discover.
With the help of the Russian government to legalize parallel imports, Russian businesses have established a network of alternative supply chains to import restricted goods through third countries.
The companies that make the products have either been unwilling or unable to tackle these unofficial distribution networks.
Source link
Related
