{"id":28005,"date":"2025-10-14T14:14:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statewatch.org.ua\/publications\/%publications_type%\/hong-kong-express-for-russian-weapons-the-dark-case-of-an-estonian-fraudster\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T14:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T14:30:30","slug":"hong-kong-express-for-russian-weapons-the-dark-case-of-an-estonian-fraudster","status":"publish","type":"publications","link":"https:\/\/statewatch.org.ua\/en\/publications\/rozsliduvannia\/sanktsii\/hong-kong-express-for-russian-weapons-the-dark-case-of-an-estonian-fraudster\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong Express for Russian Weapons: The Dark Case of an Estonian Fraudster"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>","protected":false},"featured_media":31839,"template":"","tags":[],"publications_type":[41,58],"class_list":["post-28005","publications","type-publications","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","publications_type-rozsliduvannia","publications_type-sanktsii"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHong Kong Express for Russian Weapons: The Dark Case of an Estonian Fraudster | StateWatch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meet Dmitri Polonski \u2013 an Estonian, a former member of the United Left Party, passionate tennis player, and owner of a Hong Kong company supplying sanctioned electronics to Russia. His past is checkered, marked by multiple court rulings for fraud.Polonski\u2019s criminal career began in 2007 when he was convicted for organizing the transport of contraband through Estonia. His ten-member gang received over a million counterfeit cigarettes from an illegal Russian factory and attempted to smuggle them to Sweden, hiding the cargo inside a truck trailer disguised as a load of firewood. The scheme might have worked if customs officers in one of the ports had not questioned why \u201cfirewood\u201d was being shipped in a refrigerated trailer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/statewatch.org.ua\/en\/publications\/rozsliduvannia\/sanktsii\/hong-kong-express-for-russian-weapons-the-dark-case-of-an-estonian-fraudster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hong Kong Express for Russian Weapons: The Dark Case of an Estonian Fraudster | StateWatch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meet Dmitri Polonski \u2013 an Estonian, a former member of the United Left Party, passionate tennis player, and owner of a Hong Kong company supplying sanctioned electronics to Russia. His past is checkered, marked by multiple court rulings for fraud.Polonski\u2019s criminal career began in 2007 when he was convicted for organizing the transport of contraband through Estonia. His ten-member gang received over a million counterfeit cigarettes from an illegal Russian factory and attempted to smuggle them to Sweden, hiding the cargo inside a truck trailer disguised as a load of firewood. The scheme might have worked if customs officers in one of the ports had not questioned why \u201cfirewood\u201d was being shipped in a refrigerated trailer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/statewatch.org.ua\/en\/publications\/rozsliduvannia\/sanktsii\/hong-kong-express-for-russian-weapons-the-dark-case-of-an-estonian-fraudster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"StateWatch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateWatch.ua\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-21T14:30:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/statewatch.org.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/hongkong-express.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"964\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"964\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statewatch.org.ua\\\/en\\\/publications\\\/rozsliduvannia\\\/sanktsii\\\/hong-kong-express-for-russian-weapons-the-dark-case-of-an-estonian-fraudster\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statewatch.org.ua\\\/en\\\/publications\\\/rozsliduvannia\\\/sanktsii\\\/hong-kong-express-for-russian-weapons-the-dark-case-of-an-estonian-fraudster\\\/\",\"name\":\"Hong Kong Express for Russian Weapons: The Dark Case of an Estonian Fraudster | StateWatch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statewatch.org.ua\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statewatch.org.ua\\\/en\\\/publications\\\/rozsliduvannia\\\/sanktsii\\\/hong-kong-express-for-russian-weapons-the-dark-case-of-an-estonian-fraudster\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statewatch.org.ua\\\/en\\\/publications\\\/rozsliduvannia\\\/sanktsii\\\/hong-kong-express-for-russian-weapons-the-dark-case-of-an-estonian-fraudster\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statewatch.org.ua\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/hongkong-express.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-14T14:14:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-21T14:30:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"Meet Dmitri Polonski \u2013 an Estonian, a former member of the United Left Party, passionate tennis player, and owner of a Hong Kong company supplying sanctioned electronics to Russia. 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