Social media blows up with ‘pleases’ to McDonald’s to shut down its businesses in Russia. Other well-known companies are also called to do the same. These are very important actions for swaying public opinion. But some companies that have been playing an important role in the development of Russia’s military-industrial complex have avoided such calls due to their non-public activity.
Kindzhal (Dagger) missiles targeted a shopping mall in Kyiv and storage facilities in the Carpathian Mountains as well as Iskander missiles that have demolished numerous buildings in residential areas throughout Ukraine, could not be made without Western components. Russia does not have a full production cycle, meaning it contracts supplies from milling cutters and ending with complicated electronics. Since 2014 this kind of dual-use goods export to the Russian Federation has not been sanctioned as strictly as it should have been after the aggression inflicted on Ukraine that year. Moreover, Ukraine was in the main banned by EU states from any weapon contracts to avoid annoying Moscow.
The Russian Defense Ministry intends to purchase all it need to construct modern machines of death on a permanent basis, but all those selling components became counterparts in war crimes committed with the use of Russian weapons in Ukraine. For instance, Russian UAVs and drones spying now over Kyiv and correcting missiles and artillery fire consisted of components and modules produced by companies in USA, Japan, Switzerland, UK, Spain, Czech Republic, South Korea and others. In 2020, the German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bafa) issued 673 licenses to export dual-use goods to Russia. The total value was €366 million, which put Germany at no. 4 in the dual-use goods exporter list for Russia. France issued at least 76 licenses to export military materials to Russia in 2015-2020. According to an article in Le Figaro, this included equipment that could be used by the Russian army in the war against Ukraine.
Most of Russia’s weapons came from Germany, France and Italy. For example, the French sold thermal imaging cameras and navigation equipment to Russia, and the Germans supplied Moscow with rifles and cars with special protection and the Italians with vehicles. The Rys (Lynx) Russian armored vehicle was assembled at one of IVECO’s plants.
The Working Party on Conventional Arms Exports (COARM) database shows that in 2015-2020 France was first with €152 million worth of arms exports to Russia. Germany sold arms for €121.8 million, Italy – €22.5 million, Austria – €18.5 million, Bulgaria – €16.5 million, Czech Republic – €14.2. At the same time, EU states refused most Ukrainian requests to buy weapons with which to defend itself. As investigators say, all the embargoes imposed after Russian aggression in 2014 were full of loopholes. But by seeking ways to bypass sanctions and supplying Putin with arms and double-purpose goods, governments and companies alike shared responsibility for ignoring warnings about Kremlin`s intentions following the thousands of people in Ukraine killed by Russian weapons.
So now is a critical moment to close all such loopholes as tight as possible. I hope that all those Western companies that sold their goods to Russia at least feel some shame for their actions. I suppose the same feelings are experienced by those governments who kept trying to excuse Putin’s policy after the aggression committed in Crimea and Donbas, closing their eyes to brutal violations of international law, to loopholes for companies and which supported doing ‘business as usual’ with Moscow. There is no time to waste and the whole democratic world should take the following urgent steps:
- Governments should strictly ban all types of trade with Russia involving goods which can be used in technological processes for producing arms and weapons. There can be no exclusions before the full de-occupation of Ukraine and the payment of reparations to Ukraine.
- Secret services must study ways in which direct ban are bypassed and suppress any attempts to trade via external parties.
- Sanction all companies around the globe which maintain cooperation with Russia in any military program or supply its military-industrial complex.
This is vitally important, and not just for Ukraine, as it is not last on Russia’s wish list. The next target may possibly be located in the EU. So, what I have written above is really a matter of survival and protecting people from Russian weapons constructed with gratitude to Western companies. But immediate measures will end the war and calm aggressive Russian plans for a long time.
Volodymyr ARIEV
MP; European Solidarity Party; PACE Vice-President in 2015, 2018; PACE Committee for Culture, Education, Science and Media President in 2016-2017
