The Insider: Russia continues to receive sniper rifles and ammunition from EU and US despite sanctions

The arms are flowing through neighboring countries at dramatically increased rates, a new investigation reveals.

Dec 11, 2024 - 22:00

The Insider: Russia continues to receive sniper rifles and ammunition from EU and US despite sanctions

Russian snipers, illustrative image. Photo via Wikimedia.

Russian snipers continue to receive thousands of rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition from Western countries despite the arms embargo on Russia that has been in place since 2014.

This flow of high-quality sniper rifles and ammunition through other countries undermines the effectiveness of sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, giving Russian snipers continued access to superior Western weaponry, which can be used against Ukraine on the battlefield.

According to an investigation by The Insider, released jointly with Czech publication Investigace.cz, Italian IrpiMedia and Kazakhstan’s Vlast.kz, the weapons come through Russia’s neighboring countries.

The authors of the investigation found that companies from the European Union, the United States and Türkiye have increased arms shipments to Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan several times in recent years.

According to UN Comtrade, exports to Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan increased two and a half times between 2020 and 2023, from 19,556 weapons to 53,211.

At the same time, exports of rifles and shotguns from Italy to Armenia increased almost 30 times in four years, from 68 weapons in 2019 to 1,862 in 2023. Kyrgyzstan, which did not buy weapons from Italy in 2020 and 2021, received 882 units in 2022 and 4,434 in 2023. Arms exports from Türkiye to Georgia increased from 8,426 units in 2019 to 18,843 in 2023.

As The Insider notes, the largest European arms manufacturer with ties to Russia is the Luxembourg-based Beretta Holding. In June 2024, a Russian arms importer of Beretta weapons was placed on the US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN).

The SDN is published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The list includes people, organizations, and vessels with whom US citizens and permanent residents are prohibited from doing business.

Other suppliers of sniper rifles and hunting rifles that could potentially be transferred to Russia include the ABF gun store from the US state of Colorado. According to customs data cited by The Insider, the company supplied Kazakhstan with 53 rifles from Accuracy International, Cadex Defense, FN Herstal, Patriot Ordnance Factory and Proof Research between 2022 and 2023. Data on sales of these weapons in Kazakhstan are not available, but at least two of the brands mentioned can be found with a Russian company that previously cooperated with ABF.

Many Russian snipers, as The Insider notes, continue to use Western rifles and ammunition instead of Russian weapons. This is evidenced, for example, by the protocols of the sniper competitions held in September 2024 at the Angarsky training range in Crimea. They were attended by snipers from special units of the Russian Defense Ministry and law enforcement agencies, as well as civilian shooters. Seven shooters out of 36 used Russian-made rifles at a distance of 1,600 meters, while only four used Russian ammunition.

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