Russia buys the weapons components sold in Asia

Russia, presumably, is buying back the weapons components previously sold to India and Myanmar. This was reported by the Nikkei agency, which analyzed the customs documents.

It follows from them that Russian suppliers buy parts for tanks and missiles that were previously sent under contracts to Asian countries. For example, by December 9, 2022, the Russian tank manufacturer “Uralvagonzavod” took away military products of its own production worth 24 million dollars from Myanmar. Judging by the coding, these are mainly optics for tanks.

In the customs documents, the reason for the return of the equipment to the supplier is indicated by the detected defects. However, military experts interviewed by Nikkei doubt this option. According to them, taking away defective parts under warranty, the supplier would have been obliged to send new ones instead, which did not happen. In addition, the volume of products sent back is too large to indicate such a massive shortage.

In August and November 2022, the Russian NPK KBM (“Konstruktorskoe Bureau Mashinostroeniya”) purchased six night vision navigation devices for surface-to-air missiles of its own production from the Ministry of Defense of India.

Nikkei suggests that this equipment is used by Russia to modernize its own weapons, which are then sent to the war in Ukraine.

• After the start of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, and Japan banned the export of military products and dual-use goods to Russia. This includes electronics and optics used by Russia’s military-industrial complex. As part of the tenth package of sanctions of the European Union, the transit of such production through Russian territory is also prohibited.