Our colleague Thomas Grove has recently been in touch with someone who deals on Russia's black market.

He's a salesman who's working at one of Russia's many online retail platforms and you know I think he has been selling vacuum cleaners, you know, sneakers.

The seller's name is Oleg and he sells a lot of stuff that's hard to get in Russia.

There's an increasing market in Russia for stuff from abroad right because sanctions, because of a lot of Western

companies closing down in Russia, these goods aren't as readily accessible,

and so there is a growing market for people who just want Nike sneakers, right?

Or want an iPhone, make it easier to get.

And so Oleg is, you know, he takes the calls, he, you know, takes the orders. And there's one thing he now sells that caught Thomas's eye.

I think it was early this year Star Lake starts appearing on their retail platform.

Starlink, the small terminals about the size of a pizza box that allow users to connect

to the internet from just about anywhere on the planet. They're made by

SpaceX and are one of Elon Musk's many projects. Starlings aren't available for sale

everywhere in the world. In fact, they're illegal in some places, like Russia.

But on the black market, it's not that hard to get one.

I mean, as long as you have the money to pay for it it's pretty easy.

In the course of reporting the story out I was messaging with a number of

dealers you know all of whom were happy to sell me one.

Even making it clear that I was a journalist.

We'll give you a special price.

Exactly.

It's all out in the open and it's extremely easy.

According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, reselling Starlings is a thriving black market business.

...