From Germany components for Russian drones Orlan-10
Germany arrested suspect of exporting military hardware to Russia, evading EU sanctions on Moscow. The accusation is of having sold components used in the production of the Orlan-10 surveillance drone that Moscow uses on the battlefields in Ukraine
Components from Germany for the Orlan-10 drones used by Moscow in the war in Ukraine.
The federal prosecutor's office has arrested a German citizen of Russian origin accused of selling components for Orlan-10 drones to Russia.
The defendant, named only Waldemar W, is accused of violating sanctions imposed following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, the prosecutor said in a statement. Between January 2020 and March 2023, it allegedly exported electronic components on 26 occasions to a Russian company involved in the production of military hardware, including the Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone.
W has been in custody since March 9. However, on Monday the arrest warrant then issued by a local court in the city of Mannheim was replaced by an arrest warrant issued by an investigating judge of the Federal Supreme Court.
Russia's Orlan-10 is billed as one of the most effective intelligence-gathering and target-finding drones, Business Insider recalled. Already last December an investigation by Reuters and iStories had discovered the network through which chips , circuits and electric motors manage to pierce the shirts of the sanctions and reach the assembly line of the Russian Orlan 10 drones.
The latter case underscores the growing scrutiny Western exports of high-tech goods to Russian companies have come under since Russia's assault on Ukraine in February 2022, notes the Financial Times .
All the details.
THE ACCUSATION AND THE DETAINEMENT FOR THE GERMAN MANAGER
Waldemar W was placed in custody after federal prosecutors obtained a warrant for his arrest in an investigation into which he is suspected of violating Germany's foreign trade law, the country's attorney general said on Tuesday, the AP reported.
Prosecutors said Waldemar W ran two companies in the western state of Saarland that traded in electronic components. According to federal prosecutors, in 26 cases between January 2020 and March 2023, Waldemar W exported such components to a Russian company that manufactured military equipment and hardware, including the Orlan-10 drones deployed by Russia in Ukraine.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF EU SANCTIONS
The German prosecutor's statement said Waldemar W evaded EU sanctions by importing the goods from abroad and then exporting them to Russia through a company he controls in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg. Specifically, he allegedly sent components to two fictitious civilian companies registered in Russia, who then passed them on to an arms manufacturer, working closely with the accused.
THE COMPONENTS FOR THE ORLAN-10 DRONE
The components sold, for a total value of around 715,000 euros, were an integral part of the Orlan and appear on the list of assets sanctioned by the EU.
Already last year, a study by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) called the Orlan-10 “Russia's most successful UAV”, describing it as a “platform that lies at the heart of the country's combat capabilities” .
Russian troops have used it extensively, employing it to gather intelligence, jam Ukrainian electronics, and find targets for other Russian weapons.
In addition, the RUSI report found that firms closely associated with the Russian firm, the St. Petersburg-based Special Technology Center Limited Liability Company, have imported more Western manufacturing technology since Russia began its invasion. This is why investigators are increasingly focusing on the use of third countries to circumvent export bans, points out the Financial Times .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/dalla-germania-componenti-per-droni-russi-orlan-10/ on Thu, 31 Aug 2023 09:56:38 +0000.