An investigation titled "Russian Secrets" by The Times, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 11 other media outlets has revealed that a network linked to Russian intelligence had involved British companies in unwittingly aiding the development of Russia's Arctic submarines for nearly a decade.

Source: The Times, as reported by European Pravda

Details: According to leaked documents, the procurement network evaded sanctions and export controls to acquire sensitive underwater technologies and research vessels from Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan worth over €50 million between 2014 and 2024.

It purchased high-tech British-made components such as sensors and remotely operated vehicles worth more than £1 million, which helped create Russia's early-warning system designed to detect NATO submarines in the Arctic Ocean and protect Russian nuclear weapons.

Among the British-supplied equipment were a drone used for surveying and laying cables and an advanced acoustic sensor suitable for "hydrographic survey operations".

Cyprus-based Mostrello Commercial Ltd, which was at the centre of the network and purchased sensitive equipment worth over US$50 million, was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2024 as part of measures targeting entities supporting Russia's military-industrial complex. The company was part of a network that "laid cables for the Russian government", according to US sanctions documents.

Alexander Shnyakin, a Russian-Kyrgyz businessman who headed Mostrello Commercial Ltd, was sentenced by a German court in September to four years and ten months in prison after being found guilty of selling sensitive military technologies to Russia through his company.

German prosecutors said that the company served as a front for a Russian procurement network whose aim was to supply Russia's underwater reconnaissance programme Project Harmony – a network of underwater microphones, sonars and other technologies intended to detect NATO submarines entering the Arctic.

There is reason to believe that at least part of the network was close to the Russian intelligence services.

These revelations have prompted calls for the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) to ensure stronger enforcement against attempts to bypass the UK's sanctions regime.

In response to the investigation, Dame Emily Thornberry, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said: "A sanctions regime is only as good as its enforcement. A robust sanctions regime must be able to deal with sophisticated attempts to circumvent it or there is no point in it. We mustn't be afraid to kick down doors if necessary to ensure that the rules are taken seriously."

Background:

• Earlier, a German court decided to launch criminal proceedings against two former executives of the German engineering giant Siemens accused of violating sanctions by facilitating the export of gas turbines to Russian-occupied Crimea.
• Last year in Nuremberg, German customs officers detained a Russian citizen suspected of circumventing sanctions.

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