Sergei Kariakin, SNAG Racing sell buggy to be used by Russian military in Ukraine

When not competing in cross-country rallies, Sergei Kariakin is a staunch supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies. To this end, Kariakin announced Thursday that his SNAG Racing team has sold a modified off-road buggy to the regional government of Sverdlovsk Oblast, which will then be sent to Russian troops participating in the invasion of Ukraine.

“Unlike the carbon sports buggies you’re used to seeing us compete with, this one is for a special purpose,” he said, the former referring to the side-by-side vehicles that the team fields like the Can-Am Maverick R. “It was purchased by the government of the Sverdlovsk region to be sent to the frontline.

“This is a completely standard vehicle, which, of course, is not suitable at all for the demands out there on the front. This vehicle has been fully restored with brake discs and pads replaced, calipers fixed, steering system upgraded due to poor performance, clutch basket replaced, gearbox repaired, and rear differential welded. A platform is being installed at the back, a handle is being added on the top, and everything here will be covered with panelling.

“Without a doubt, the vehicle will look completely different and, most importantly, it will be reliable.

“This is an unusual task for us, but it’s what we love to do.”

The arrangement is the most significant contribution Kariakin has made to the war effort after spending the last two years mostly giving patriotic statements, including leading Putin’s birthday parade in Yekaterinburg in October. While not unusual sentiment among those who align with the president’s agenda, Kariakin has more than a finger on the country’s political pulse as a deputy in the Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly and member of the pro-Putin United Russia party. In March, prior to the country’s presidential election, Kariakin commented it was “incomprehensible to me” that some parties “do not particularly support” the conflict.

Unsurprisingly, he is a vocal critic of the FIA’s policies that prohibit Russian and Belarusian drivers from racing internationally unless they agree to condemn the invasion and not use their country’s insignia. The invasion launched a month following his ninth career Dakar Rally in 2022, where he retired due to a mechanical issue; Kariakin won the Dakar in the Quad category in 2017 before switching to SSVs in 2019 and finishing second in class the following year. In October 2022, he wrote a letter to FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem asking for the restrictions to be lifted but did not receive an answer.

Credit: SNAG Racing

With his cross-country activities limited to the Russian Rally-Raid Championship, Kariakin won the 2023 Silk Way Rally in the T3 category, a year after SNAG Racing did the same with ex-Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin. While Mazepin subsequently found racing opportunities outside of Russia under a neutral flag, Kariakin’s only foreign action since the invasion have been the Abu Dhabi Baja Challenge in January and the second half of last month’s Silk Way Rally that ran through neighbouring Mongolia. Although the Abu Dhabi Baja Challenge is overseen by FIA member Emirates Motorsports Organization, they allowed Kariakin to use his Russian Automobile Federation licence to sign up; this prompted Ukrainian Dakar Rally alumnus Vadim Pritulyak to boycott the race. On the other hand, Kariakin was not permitted to go to the Taklimakan Rally in 2023 despite warming Russo-Chinese relations since the Chinese Automobile and Motorcycle Federation follows the FIA’s rules.

Kariakin claimed in February that the Amaury Sport Organisation is “working hard to find ways for Russian teams to participate” in the Dakar.

Most Russians who rejected the FIA measures generally avoid speaking on the war save for standard proclamations of national pride. Others like 2022 Russian Rally-Raid T2 Champion Anton Melnikov, twice Dakar co-driver Anton Nikolaev, and 2011 FIM Cross-Country World Quad Champion Dmitry Pavlov went as far as to visit occupied territories in Ukraine such as Kherson and Mariupol to donate supplies to Russian forces alongside. In March, Melnikov wrote a blog post criticising The Checkered Flag‘s coverage of the trips and erroneously claimed the author is a Chinese national living in the United Kingdom.

Nineteen-time Dakar Truck winner KAMAZ-master is also directly involved in the invasion as their parent company is owned by the state and provides vehicles to the Russian Armed Forces. Team management has publicly stated their personnel are registered to be mobilised into the military, though they have yet to be needed.

Located in the Ural Federal District, Sverdlovsk is not near the front nor is it one of Ukraine’s targets during its current incursion into western Russia. Still, the oblast’s administrative centre and Kariakin’s hometown of Yekaterinburg has railroads that transport goods to the battlefield; a Russian agent with the Ukrainian partisan group Atesh sabotaged one such track in July that was carrying North Korean ammunition.

The “special military operation” is currently in its 918th day, though fighting has been going on for over a decade. Opposite Kariakin, Ukrainian rally raiders like Pritulyak and former Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov have donated their own race vehicles to the Armed Forces of Ukraine or are soldiers themselves. Tyres used at Dakar have also ended up in AFU possession thanks to donors like Lithuanian rally veteran Benediktas Vanagas.

Whereas SNAG’s car is an example of the rally raid realm sending something to the Russian military, the opposite will hold true next year as well. The Chechen government plans to enter the Chaborz M-3, a buggy that has appeared in Syria and Ukraine, in the 2025 Silk Way Rally after undergoing testing in the spring and various modifications.