Members of Russia's business elite are flying in Canadian-made luxury planes that were imported after sanctions targeting the country's aviation sector came into place, CBC's visual investigations unit has found.

Russian import records obtained by CBC News show 34 business jets and commercial aircraft built in Canada and sold on the secondary market have ended up in Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Those records, as well as flight data, aviation industry documents and leaked border-crossing information, reveal that sanctioned oligarch Igor Kesaev imported a Bombardier business jet in July 2023. Another jet arrived in March 2024 via a company majority-owned by another oligarch, Sergey Shishkarev, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Other jets were imported by Russian airlines that cater to charter flights.

Many Western observers say these aircraft end up there through loopholes that allow importers to evade sanctions by shipping the planes through countries friendly to Russia, such as Oman and Kyrgyzstan.

Russian billionaire Igor Kesaev delivers a speech in Moscow on Nov. 1, 2012. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

"It's quite clear that Russia has been able to work around some of these sanctions in the classic black market model, but with 21st-century sophistication," said Fen Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. "They are buying parts, even entire aircraft jets, through middlemen in countries that don't honour Western sanctions."

Hampson described it as "big business," adding that "not a whole lot" has been done to slow down or stop these transactions.

Kesaev's lawyer, Roeland Moeyersons from the Belgium-based EU-Sanctions law firm, wrote in an email: "Mr. Kesaev declines to comment on press articles. I trust you understand."

CBC reached out to Shishkarev's Delo Group but did not receive a response.

Russian billionaire Sergey Shishkarev is a majority-owner of Del