Kemppi officially responded to the joint investigation by Trap Aggressor of the StateWatch analytical center, the Estonian outlet Postimees, and the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, acknowledging the sale of welding equipment to an official dealer in Serbia, from where it reached Russian enterprises and subsequently the Russian military-industrial complex.
Kemppi’s Vice President for Markets, Heidi Hannonen, confirmed that the equipment with the serial numbers provided by journalists had been sold to an official dealer in Serbia. The company also reported that they immediately contacted their Serbian partner to clarify the subsequent supply chain and are preparing a legal demand to cease operations for the Russian importer LLC “CTS Vyborg”.
“Our intention is to trace the supply chain as far as possible in order to establish where, and by whom, the violation of international sanctions occurred,” Hannonen stated.
According to data revealed in the investigation, the total value of Kemppi’s equipment supplied to Russia after the company’s announcement of its withdrawal from the Russian market in March 2022 amounted to 8 million US dollars. A single Russian company, LLC “CTS Vyborg”, received products worth 5.4 million dollars. In addition, the value of equipment delivered through intermediaries to the defence enterprise JSC “Asteis”, which manufactures “Patrul” armoured vehicles, including those used in combat operations on Ukrainian territory, amounted to 35 million roubles.
Most of the products that ended up in Russia are classified under sanctioned HS codes, including electronic integrated circuits, static converters, and transistors.
In its response to Estonian journalist Mainhard Pulk, the Finnish Customs Service declined to comment on the specific case, citing commercial secrecy, but confirmed active efforts to counter attempts to circumvent sanctions. At the same time, Kemppi stressed that all official dealers had signed the Partner Code of Conduct, which “explicitly prohibits the sale or supply of products in violation of sanctions.”
Kemppi’s internal investigation remains under close scrutiny from journalists of Trap Aggressor, Postimees, and Helsingin Sanomat.