Russia is able to purchase and import drones and parts for weapons and ammunition via Kazakhstan, circumventing Western sanctions.

Source: an investigation conducted by Important Stories, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and Der Spiegel

Quote from the OCCRP: "Trade statistics show large increases of drone and microelectronics imports to Kazakhstan since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Kazakhstan’s exports of drones and microelectronics to Russia have also grown enormously.

Kazakh companies registered by Russians after the war are being used as intermediaries for these imports.

One company called Aspan Arba, meaning Sky Chariot, imported drones and sent them to a Russian company called Sky Mechanics, which sold them to pro-war organizations. The two companies have the same owner.

A German company owned by a Russian couple sent microchips to a Kazakh company, established shortly after the invasion, owned by their son. It then sent the chips to Russia."

Details: In 2022, Kazakhstan exported US$1.23 million worth of drones to Russia.

Kazakhstan and Russia are both members of the Eurasian Economic Union, and trade between the countries is not subject to customs checks.

In 2021, so few drones were imported to Kazakhstan that they did not appear on the National Statistics Bureau’s trade data. In 2022, however, Kazakhstan imported nearly US$5 million worth of drones, most of them from China.

Chinese DJI drones are being sold in Russia, though the manufacturer claims that it is not supplying its products to Russia.

DJI has said that its products are intended exclusively for civilian use and have not been supplied to either Russia or Ukraine since April 2022.

However, the Russian company called Sky Mechanics is an official supplier of DJI drones in Russia.

According to the Sky Mechanics’ website, the firm’s partners include oil and gas and mining firms, mobile service providers, the state-owned Russian Railways, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to the information about Sky Mechanics’ transactions the journalists were able to obtain, the firm also sells DJI drones to Russian groups registered as non-profit organisations that support Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The People’s Front – Everything For Victory foundation is one such organisation. It is raising money to support units of the Russian army fighting in Ukraine.

Sky Mechanics’ major buyer in 2022 was DJI Ars Moscow, a firm that appears to be connected with Sky Mechanics: DJI Ars Moscow owner worked for Sky Mechanics until at least 2021.

"Under the brand Digbox, DJI Ars Moscow sells drones and other items on Ozon, a popular online marketplace that Russian soldiers sometimes use to equip themselves for the war," the OCCRP wrote.

Journalists also obtained Russian customs data that appears to indicate that more than 500 drones supplied by the Kazakh firm Aspan Arba were imported to Russia in 2022.

Aspan Arba was registered in April 2022, a few months after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It appears that Aspan Arba and the Russian Sky Mechanics are run by the same people.

Ilya Goldberg is listed as the owner of both firms. Mikhail Sapozhnikov, the current director of Aspan Arba, used to co-own Sky Mechanics with Goldberg.

According to a leak of phone numbers from CDEK, a Russian courier service, a phone number listed on Aspan Arba’s website is also the number of a Sky Mechanics’ employee.

Aspan Arba is a Kazakh firm, which means it is free to import drones from abroad.

According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development, the company was licensed to import over 18,000 DJI drones worth US$45 million from DJI Europe BV, the Dutch subsidiary of the Chinese drone company.

In 2021, Kazakhstan imported US$35 million worth of microchips and other components used in the manufacturing of missiles and demining robots; the number reached US$75 million in 2022.

Meanwhile, the volume of Kazakhstan’s export of microchips to Russia has increased by more than 70 times between 2021 and 2022, from US$245,000 to US$18 million.

Stek, a Moscow-based firm, imported microchips, diodes, transistors, and other items worth US$4.2 million from Kazakhstan in 2022 and 2023.

The documents seen by journalists do not reveal the manufacturer of these components, but indicate that they entered Kazakhstan via Hongkong, Germany, the Netherlands and Singapore.

"The buyers of Stek’s wares, according to its website, include the MEI Special Design Bureau, a developer of radio systems that is a part of Russia’s space agency, and Moskovsky Prozhektornyi Zavod, a power supply manufacturer for Russian strategic missile and air defense complexes," OCCRP said.

Most of the company’s sales in 2022 were made to a single company called Set-1.

That company’s website is currently down, but an archived version shows that it "develops and manufactures special technology" for Russian military and law enforcement bodies, including remote-controlled robots called Sfera and Skarabei.

The Russian military employs these products for demining operations on Ukraine’s occupied territories.

In 2022, Set-1 supplied electronic equipment to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, its Federal Security Service, and its proxies in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine.

Reporters were able to trace the origin of some of the components Stek imported from Kazakhstan.

"This January, customs data shows, it received a shipment of 2,598 microchips from a Kazakh company called Da Group 22. The same month, Da Group 22 had itself received a shipment of exactly the same size from a German company called Elix-St," OCCRP reported, adding that Da Group 22 and Elix-St are owned by one Russian family.

The German firm is owned by the couple Yevgeny and Yelena Chernet, while the Kazakh firm is registered under Aleksandr Chernet, who appears to be their son.

Data from Germany indicate that Elix-St did not export any goods to Kazakhstan prior to the Russian invasion, though it did actively cooperate with Russia.

None of the firms’ owners responded to the journalists’ requests for comments.

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