According to journalists newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and public regional broadcasters NDR and WDR EU sanctions are systematically bypassed. Journalists took a closer look at the Russian concern Promtech, which produces weapons for the Russian army. As it turns out, despite EU and US sanctions, in 2023 Promtech imported various components and devices from abroad worth 8 billion dollars. These products came from the US and the EU, including Germany, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Armenia and others
As the journalistic investigation showed, Promtech imported these products through the subsidiary Enütek, which it founded in Turkey. In addition to Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Armenia, Türkiye is considered one of the transfer centers (so-called hubs) through which Russia tries to bypass Western sanctions – we read in SZ.
Newspaper reports, citing data from the Ifo economic research institute, that the above-mentioned countries supplied Russia with 50 times more of these goods than they exported to the whole world in 2019.
Western components in Russian missiles
As journalists have established, the Turkish company Enütek has supplied companies from the Promtech group with semiconductors from the German manufacturer Infineon and components from the American company Molex. The electronics from this manufacturer are used in Russian Ch-101 missiles; it was such a missile that hit a children's hospital in Kiev in early July, writes Süddeutsche Zeitung.
When asked by journalists for clarification, companies claim that they have no influence over what happens to their products once they reach intermediaries. Some, like an unnamed manufacturer from southern Germany, admit that they sell their products to the Turkish company Enütek. These are, the German company enigmatically said, civilian products that are sold to customers and intermediaries around the world.
Experts: Excuses and Half-Truths
Experts quoted by Süddeutsche Zeitung consider the companies' translations to be an excuse or a half-truth. In their opinion, some companies simply do not want to know what happens to their products and how they are used. This is most often the case with so-called dual-use products, i.e. those that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
The authors of the article in Süddeutsche Zeitung point out that during the negotiations on the 14th package of EU sanctions, it was Germany that watered down the clause that was to prohibit the export of dual-use products by third countries such as Turkey. Germany forced through the clause that did not apply to subsidiaries of EU companies. The spokeswoman for the German government she explained at the time that EU sanctions could not harm the German economy more than the Russian one.
The article comes from the website German Welle