Media reports reveal that several EU countries are still selling arms to Russia – and one of the biggest exporters is Germany!
According to BILD the report was leaked by research portal ‘investigate Europe’ where there was data cited from the official arms export registers of the individual countries.
According to this, AFTER the embargo Germany delivered armaments worth 121.8 million euros to Russia – that is 35 percent of all EU arms exports between 2015 and 2020.
The report said that the consignment was mainly icebreaker ships but that there could have also been guns and “special protection vehicles” among them. The German exports are marked down for ‘dual usage’ which means they can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
The report also stated that the civilian-looking icebreakers were classified as arms and so they had to be approved by the current government under Chancellor Angela Merkel. Their possible location for Russia: the Arctic.
Kremlin representatives made their claims to power clear years ago over the Arctic.
The construction of the iceabreakers started in 2013 before the embargo but export licenses were being granted in 2015 – after the annexation of Crimea.
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Who also supplied arms to Russia?
The report also claimed that at least ten EU countries exported arms to Russia between 2015 and 2020 partially legally circumventing the embargo rules with arms coming to a total value: 346 million euros.
With a value of 152 million euros, France sent the most armaments to Russia. Followed by Germany, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Finland, Slovakia and Spain wrote BILD.
The french in 2014 even authorised shipments of ‘chemical weapons’, ‘biological weapons’, ‘irritants’ and ‘radioactive materials, accessories, components and supplies’ the report added.
Source: BILD, Investigateeurope.eu