Russia purchased German engines for FSB boats in circumvention of sanctions
Russia continued to receive German equipment for its ships through a network of intermediaries in Turkey and Hong Kong. These were MAN engines that were shipped to the Almaz shipyard in St. Petersburg, where patrol boats are built for the FSB border service.
According to investigators, the Turkish shipyard Vicem Yachts purchased the engines from a local MAN subsidiary and provided a written guarantee that the equipment would remain in Turkey and would not be re-exported to Russia. The engines were then transferred to the Hong Kong companies Hongkong Pokwing and Scorpion’s Holding Group, but the containers were actually unloaded in St. Petersburg.
In this way, Russia likely received at least six engines for the “Sobol” project patrol boats.
The supplier for the Almaz shipyard was the company TPO Kronstadt. According to financial documents, the shipbuilding company paid it 760,000 euros. At the same time, Hongkong Pokwing received 37 million rubles from Kronstadt.
Payments were processed through the Turkish company Malpina Yazilim, founded by Dmitry Khitrov, a native of Vorkuta and a citizen of Lithuania. Over the past year, the company received 334 million rubles from Kronstadt, of which 11.5 million rubles constituted remuneration for intermediary services.
Source: Dossier Center, Süddeutsche Zeitung.
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