The team of Dmytro Dubilet, a former minister of the Cabinet of Ministers and now an IT entrepreneur, analyzed the public procurement website in the Russian Federation zakupki.gov.ru and found information on how Western companies dodge sanctions and trade with Russian military companies.
An analysis of the site's data gives grounds to assert that companies from the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Slovenia, Luxembourg, and other countries have dodged (and possibly continue to dodge) the sanctions.
Currently, the Zakupki website seems to work only inside Russia. "But even in case the Russians decide to close it completely after this publication, our IT specialists have already parsed (downloaded) it. We have created a mirror of this site and will give access to it to all journalists," Dubilet wrote.
For example, he took the Almaz-Antey concern, a key Russian military enterprise that produces a lot of air defense systems and other weapons.
Here you can find a list of all foreign companies whose products were spotted in the tenders of companies associated with Almaz-Antey.
For example, ISCAR Metalworking belonging to the American Berkshire Hathaway took part in a tender for the supply of metal-cutting equipment through its official dealer, St. Petersburg Instrumental Equipment. And the German high-precision measuring equipment from the manufacturer Zoller was purchased at a tender in March this year.
Dubilet recalls that Almaz-Antey has been under sanctions since 2014. It is forbidden to trade with it both directly and indirectly (through dealers or other schemes). However, enterprises from the concern do not hesitate to hold tenders for purchasing products from foreign companies. "Moreover, often these products are very similar to dual-use goods that are banned from being supplied to Russia by any company! This means that manufacturers violated both personal and sectoral sanctions at the same time."
According to the rules, suppliers must carry out thorough order compliance (compliance checks). "If the Russians ordered these products through complex multi-layer schemes, even then the companies are responsible for this. But here supplies were often carried out through official dealers and distributors. This suggests that companies deliberately turned a blind eye to sanctions," Dubilet believes.
"We are not publishing this information in order to generate a wave of indignation towards Western companies. Our goal is to achieve understanding in the West that narrow sanctions do not work," he explained.
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