With roughly three in five imported used cars now coming from a single supplier, the market is more exposed to conditions in that one trade relationship than the overall volume suggests.
Imports of used passenger cars into Russia fell by 43% in October 2026 compared with the same month a year earlier, according to figures published by Sergey Tselikov, director of the Avtostat analytical agency, on his Telegram channel and reported by TASS. Some 34,000 second-hand passenger cars entered the country during the month, against almost 60,000 in October 2025, which Tselikov described as a record.
The year-on-year comparison is sharpened by that base. October 2025 was an exceptional month, and the fall partly reflects the difficulty of matching it rather than a collapse from ordinary levels. On a monthly basis the decline is milder: imports were down 5% from September 2026, according to the same figures.
The geography of the trade has shifted markedly. Shipments from the Republic of Korea fell 6.5-fold, from 13,800 cars to 2,100. Imports arriving via Georgia dropped 5.5-fold, and supplies routed through Belarus decreased 3.5-fold. Deliveries from Japan and China fell by 6% and 22% respectively. Japan nonetheless remains the largest single supplier, accounting for nearly 60% of total imports, Tselikov said.
The Korean and Georgian figures are the most striking. Both had served as significant channels into the Russian market, and their contraction is far steeper than the overall decline. The data as reported do not explain the causes, and Tselikov's figures do not attribute the drop to any single factor. Whether the change reflects weaker Russian demand, tighter export controls or restrictions on intermediaries, higher costs of importing, or a combination of these, is not established in the material available.
The concentration on Japan carries its own implications. With roughly three in five imported used cars now coming from a single supplier, the market is more exposed to conditions in that one trade relationship than the overall volume suggests. The 6% decline in Japanese shipments is modest against the wider fall, which makes Japan's share larger by default as much as by growth. Chinese deliveries, down 22%, were already a smaller part of the used-car trade.
For Russian consumers the practical question is price and supply. A smaller flow of second-hand imports, particularly from routes that have contracted several-fold, points to tighter availability in the segment that has supplied cheaper vehicles. The Avtostat figures cover volumes only; they do not report prices, and no assessment of the effect on the domestic market is included in the report. The October numbers describe one month against an unusually high base, and a longer run of data would be needed before treating the decline as a durable trend.
