‘Both sides building leverage’

While less prominent in customs records, firms incorporated in the European Union, which imposed some of the toughest sanctions on Russia, are also among the suppliers of goods.One of the biggest suppliers of Lego, which is readily sold on Russian online markets such as Ozon despite officially leaving the country, is a company registered in Poland, Bilax.

When approached by an Al Jazeera journalist posing as a customer, a company representative said his main business was to transfer goods from Western Europe to Eastern Europe and Central Asia.“We have continuous relationships with our clients in Russia and we are on the side of business in this conflict,” he said.He connected Al Jazeera to a company based in Russia, Kids’ Times, where a sales manager claimed to have access to almost any item of Lego “through their partners based in Europe”.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, Bilax said that the company “has never traded Lego” and provides only logistical services for third parties.Lego said in a statement to Al Jazeera that it has “taken steps to increase visibility and control over any potential resale activity by retail partners which includes adding a clause to existing retailer contracts prohibiting existing retail partners from supplying to Russia”.

Businesses outside Russia willing to supply sanctioned goods directly to Russian customers are not difficult to find.

Styleout Watches and Jewellery, a jewellery store in Dubai that sells Rolex and other premium watches, told an Al Jazeera journalist posing as a buyer that it was “more than happy” to deal with a Russian client and had “lots of them”.Another regular visitor, Chane Baye, earns his living by using his two donkeys to transport sacks of grain across the city for clients. His income can range from 200 to 400 birr per day (approximately $1.50 to $3) – a decent sum in a country where a third of the population lives below the World Bank’s poverty line of $2.15 a day.

The 61-year-old seeks out the clinic every three months or so – “whenever they start limping or have a stomach problem”, he said.“Before this clinic, we used traditional ways to treat them,” he explained, describing how nails were once crudely removed from the animals’ legs with a knife. He is grateful that his donkeys now have access to professional care for their injuries and infections.

At the clinic, vet Derege Tsegay demonstrates the less glamorous side of his work by performing a routine but unpleasant procedure – reaching deep into a distressed donkey’s rectum, clad in a rubber glove.Derege removes a large mass of stool that had accumulated in the animal’s digestive tract.