Russia is using bags of cash and diamonds to avoid sanctions and fund its weapons program, expert says

• Russia is using illicit cash channels to fund covert activities, analysts say.
• An expert took Insider through how the networks operate. 
• Kremlin is exploiting gaps in sanctions laws, but also using older methods like cash and diamonds.

Russia is using covert financial networks to fund its purchases of banned weapons technology, getting round Western sanctions in the process, analysts told Insider.

They described in unusual detail how the schemes work.

Pavlo Verkhniatskyi, a member of the International Working Group on Russian sanctions, provided exclusive insight to Insider on how Russia is exploiting the financial system.