Japan's Mazda has reappeared among the leading car brands in Russia even though it ceased exports to the country in 2022 and sold its 50% stake in a Vladivostok manufacturing joint venture. According to data from Russian analytics firm Autostat, Mazda ranked sixth in Russia for January-February with 4,871 vehicles registered, up from just 338 in the same period of 2025.
The rise is tied to a change in Russia's scrappage fee structure that took effect on December 1. The fee increases hit powerful and costly cars bought by individuals importing vehicles for personal use - some fees rose by hundreds of percent - while smaller, lower-output-engine cars were not subject to the same large increases. Autostat found the Mazda CX-5 to be the most registered among imported cars with smaller engines that qualify for materially lower scrappage charges.
Mazda has stressed it is not orchestrating these shipments. In a response to a Reuters request for comment, the company said that the Mazda vehicles registered in Russia are imported by independent third-party vehicle trading companies that are not controlled by Mazda Motor Corporation or any of its affiliates.
Industry patterns described by Autostat indicate that tens of thousands of cars built by foreign manufacturers that exited Russia continue to enter the market via third countries - mainly China - without the consent of those manufacturers. Those flows have been reshaped by the December policy change, which made smaller-engine models relatively more attractive for individual importers because of lower scrappage liabilities.
Autostat also reported that overall car sales in Russia rose 2.5% year-on-year in February to 80,027 vehicles. Within the top 10 brands, Toyota - positioned ninth - is the only other marque that is not headquartered in China, Russia or Belarus.
The data highlight how a domestic regulatory adjustment can materially alter import composition and channel activity, boosting registrations of brands and models that were no longer directly exported to the market but remain available through third-party trading networks.