Russian arms manufacturer Promtekhnologiya uses imported Finnish and American precision bullets and cases for ammunition produced in its Russian factories for the country's military. This is reported by the Russian review site The Insider, which is based in Latvia.
In the past, it has been about ready-made Western ammunition and hand-loaded cartridges.
The western components come from American Hornady and Peterson and the Finnish company Nammo Lapua. The components are used to manufacture ammunition used by Russian snipers along the front lines, reports The Insider. The site refers to Russian military bloggers with good insight into the army.
Nammo Lapua does not know how it happened:
- We have not delivered any products to Russia - either directly or indirectly - after 2014, says a spokesperson for the company to the Finnish public service company Yle.
At the same time, the spokesperson states that the company cannot comment on information about products that may be found in Russia or how they are used.
Russia's dependence on foreign components is not new. The country is plowing huge resources into its military and the war in Ukraine. According to the analysis institute OSW, only salaries to soldiers, compensation to the wounded and payments to the families of killed soldiers correspond to around two percent of Russia's GDP.
Russia has long had difficulty obtaining technical components needed to develop advanced military technology.
- For at least 15 years, they have had a certain lack of technical components that were needed to take the step from analogue to digital operations, says Johan Huovinen, who is a military teacher at the Norwegian Defense Academy.
Europe and the United States have imposed extensive sanctions against Russia. This has led to Russian imports from several neighboring countries rushing instead. The companies in the countries benefit from that, says Johan Huovinen.
- Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have made a lot of money from the scheme.
There is evidence that neighboring countries have exported both arms and ammunition from the West to Russia. Between 2022 and 2024, Russia is said to have imported over ten million bullets from NATO countries.
- Ukraine has taken apart some weapons and ammunition and has been able to show off components from Switzerland, Italy, Germany and France. It is about a dysfunctional system in Europe – sanctions always create some form of black market, says Huovinen.
Among pro-Russian Telegram channels, American and Finnish components are discussed.
The channel Bolshoy Panda writes in several posts about ammunition with American bullets and cases, but at the same time states that the supply is limited. In a later post, the channel states that the ammunition that is now supplied to the rifles at the front contains Scenar bullets, which according to The Insider are from Finnish Nammo Lapua.
Several Russian Telegram channels have advertisements of Western bullets for sale, indicating that they are offered in the Russian market. Among other things, a Russian gun shop advertises its newly imported Hornady cartridges on Telegram and waxes lyrical about their "steady performance" and "precise accuracy".
The EU introduced arms sanctions against Russia already in connection with the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
However, the Nammo Lapua balls can be stored for a long time – thus the components may have been exported legally before the sanctions came into force. However, it is not possible to know for sure, says Jarkko Keskinen who is chief inspector at the Finnish customs to Yle.
- These bullets are common goods and are sold almost everywhere in the EU. It is impossible to say how they have come to Russia, he says.
This is not the first time that Finnish weapons appear in Russia.
The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat already revealed in 2024 that hundreds of Finnish rifles, which can be used for military sniper shooting, had been imported to Russia during the war. The figures were reported in the public database of the Russian federal agency Rosakkreditatsija.
But after several journalistic revelations about arms imports from the West, Russian authorities have made the review more difficult. They have also changed the customs code for several items.
The Insider has not been able to trace the Finnish bullets, but states that there are indications that the American bullets were imported via the EU.
