Russia contains over a fifth of the world’s forested areas and, prior to 2022, was exporting more than US$3 billion a year worth of timber to the EU. Following the invasion of Ukraine, the EU imposed a ban on Russian timber (among other goods) but these products continue to arrive in the EU and UK. Some techniques used to evade timber sanctions include routing timber through third countries such as China, Turkey, Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan, or mislabelling timber as originating from these regions. Following the sanctions placed on Russian timber, EU imports from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan increased from €445,000 to over €30 million. However, both countries have relatively little tree cover, indicating the possibility of fraudulent rerouting. FIs involved in the timber industry should be aware of these illicit practices to help minimise the risk of unwittingly assisting in sanctions contravention.