For weapons production: the Russian Federation is buying Western high -tech machines in China - FT
This hidden strategy of Moscow for the purchase of high -precision equipment, disclosed by researchers, allows to bypass more and more strict Western sanctions and export control aimed at deterlying production for military purposes. Operations are carried out through the networks of opaque companies that use the reserves of old high -tech machines manufactured by Western companies left in China after many years of sales by local factories.
The Center for Perspective Defense Research (C4ads), the Washington Analytical Center, which revealed this shadow trade, stated that complex supply schemes indicate the exaggeration of Moscow's statements about the production of high -precision instruments in Russia. Allen Maggard, a C4ads analyst who has led the study, noted that Russian weapons are in a hurry to expand their production capabilities, using everything you can get.
One of the purchasing networks, C4ads found and confirmed by Financial Times, is based around the Moscow company AMG, a Russian military supplier, against which the United States has imposed sanctions last year. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, AMG increased imports of numerical control tools (CNCs) made by TSUGAMI, a high -grade Japanese manufacturer of Tokyo.
These tools are needed for the defense industry as they allow to automate high -precision, high -speed metal manipulations and milling. According to open source documents, AMG has concluded contracts for the supply of machines for Conet, which develops for Russia, weapons systems, including systems of reactive weapons and missile systems. TSUGAMI machines were discovered at various military facilities.
Sergiy Shoigu, the then Minister of Defense of Russia, was shown on state television in March before the TSUGAMI machine at a Altai plant that produces details for cruise missiles. According to customs documents, AMG purchased TSUGAMI equipment for about $ 600,000 from the official Japanese supplier of TSUGAMI equipment. After the invasion of the purchase, they increased to $ 50 million in 2023, and all the growth was due to two shadows.
The first mediator, Amegino, is a US -based US -based USA, whose site was originally located on servers in Russia. Its owner is Andrey Mironov, according to Diligencia, which deals with corporate intelligence. The second company, Ele Technology, publishes itself for the "Gray Machinery Company", American machine distributor.
The ELE site, which is taken from the real site of Gray Machinery, states that the company has a warehouse in Illinois, and potential customers are offered elevators from Chicago O'hara Airport. The site states that Glenn and Jared Gray, experienced American Merchants of CNCs, are members of the team. However, in fact, Ele Technology is based in Shenchezhen, China. Glenn Gray, whose full biography and images are posted on ELE, said FT that he knew nothing about this company.
Registration on the site and old advertising materials indicate that Ele is managed by the Chinese electronics merchant named Benson Zenng. Jen did not answer the comment request. Tsugami reported FT that she did not supply any ELE goods directly. The ELE website currently sells two old Tsugami machines, manufactured in 2001 and 2005. "We see that machines are being imported into Russia, which for several decades," Maggard says.
This indicates non -compliance with the rules in the old machine market and indicates that manufacturers do not worry about where their products get after sale. "If the Center for two or three decades, it does not mean that it is not capable of producing simple components for weapons. " Both companies play different roles in Russian purchasing activities. Amegino is a broker who instructs Chinese suppliers such as Ele to supply goods to Russia.
These two companies worked together: C4ads documents show that AMEGINO organized $ 2. 7 million to ELE for ELE for ELE at the beginning of 2023. Tsugami has been counting on the Chinese market for about 20 years. According to one source, there are more than 100,000 TSUGAMI cars from 200,000 worldwide. Moscow aimed at this market after the official suppliers of Tsugami machines left Russia in 2022.
"Tsugami has tried to use China's strategy to transform into a production state," says an investment security analyst that checked the company in China. In 2023, more than 60 percent of TSUGAMI sales were China. Unlike AMG, UMIC did not fall under US sanctions. The owner of UMIC, Yulia Karpova, has the same name and contact phone as Eugene Karpov, AMG owner. Yulia Karpova took an active part in Russian exhibitions, promoting AMG products on stands marked as AMG-MUC.
In May 2022, after Japan strengthened export control, it was photographed with AMG brochures that advertise the range of TSUGAMI products, which AMG claimed the ability to put. UMIC and AMG refused to comment on this situation. The Ministry of Commerce of Japan reported that it has been working with partners with G7 to strengthen the measures to counteract the bypass of sanctions.
"While many countries are trying to cope with the problem of old goods, Japan collects a variety of information, including data on sanctions," the ministry said. "We will add them to the list of sanctions as needed. " We will remind, on April 26 the media reported that the Russian Federation continues to buy servers and data warehouses in the same volume as before the imposition of sanctions in Western countries after a full -scale invasion of Ukraine.