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Despite international sanctions on Russia due to its ongoing war on Ukraine, German engineering companies continue to export industrial goods to Russia mostly via Turkey, according to an investigative report from German broadcaster Südwestrundfuk (SWR).
More than 300 German-made machines that can be used to manufacture vehicle parts or ammunition were delivered to Russia in 2023, often via Turkey, SWR reported on Thursday.
Since imports of goods that can be used for military purposes are prohibited due to the sanctions, Russia is trying to produce as much as possible domestically. According to the SWR research, the products of German mechanical engineering companies play an important role in helping Russia produce its own war machinery.
Russian customs documents, available to SWR, showed that there were more than 300 delivery of goods from German manufacturers to Russia by December 2023. Most of those goods were large industrial machines or computer numerical control (CNC) machines, which are used for cutting steel, bending sheet metal or welding metal parts fully automatically. These machines play an important role in the manufacturing of vehicle or aircraft parts or ammunition.
Olena Yurchenko from the Economic Security Council of Ukraine has warned that 80 percent of the CNC machines in Russia are now used in military production: “With computer-aided CNC machines, they can produce much faster and more precisely, which is extremely important, especially in the weapons sector. This ultimately enables them to produce even more deadly weapons. And Germany is the market leader in the production of these machines, with a share of up to 30 percent in Russia,” she told SRW.
SWR was able to identify more than 30 German manufacturers whose machines were imported to Russia last year, many of them based in Baden-Württemberg, a traditional location for mechanical engineering. In around two-thirds of the cases, the machines were imported to Russia via Turkey. According to SWR research, some of the Turkish middlemen involved have direct connections to Russia, and some were even founded by Russian entrepreneurs.
Turkey is frequently accused of serving as a hub for sanctions evasion, enabling Russia to circumvent these economic barriers.
NATO member Ankara opposes Western sanctions on Russia and has close ties with both Moscow and Kyiv, its Black Sea neighbors. The country has said joining sanctions against Russia would have hurt its already strained economy and argued that it is focused on mediation efforts.