Iskra, China, and Rostec. Belgian Tools (Once Again?) Fuel Russian Defense Industry

For years, Belgian New Lachaussée has insisted: “Since 2014 – no dealings with Russia’s military-industrial complex”. Yet equipment produced by this company appeared at a Rostec enterprise that manufactures primers for combat ammunition and patents cartridge cases suitable for sniper rifles. Before the full-scale invasion, supplies were delivered directly, and multiple journalistic investigations documented these facts. In the midst of the full-scale war, a used NLC press once again arrived in Russia. The StateWatch team analyzed the history of New Lachaussée’s product supplies to the Russian Federation and, together with François Corbiau, an independent journalist, investigated how Belgian equipment once again reached the aggressor state in 2024.

Key Findings:

In 2019, New Lachaussée supplied equipment for the production of industrial detonators to JSC Novosibirsk Mechanical Plant Iskra, contributing to the modernization of the enterprise.
In addition to its civilian output, the Russian plant holds licenses for ammunition production, manufactures primers for ammunition and develops cartridge cases for small arms.
In 2024, used New Lachaussée equipment was re-exported to Russia via an intermediary in China – Fushun Huarui Chemical Technology Development Co., Ltd.
Both the Chinese supplier and the Russian importer, LLC TK Mir, are known for their cooperation with Russia’s military-industrial complex and maintain historical ties with the Novosibirsk Plant Iskra.

Located in the industrial Belgian city of Herstal, New Lachaussée (NLC) has specialized in the design and manufacture of equipment for producing small-caliber ammunition, detonator primers, and pyrotechnic compositions since 1830. New Lachaussée is a full-cycle enterprise capable of manufacturing equipment for all stages of ammunition production, from metal processing to waste recycling. As a result, its products are widely used in the defense sector.

Illustrative photo. A model of New Lachaussée equipment displayed on the company’s official website. Source: New Lachaussée s.a.

Although NLC production lines are capable of manufacturing millions of rounds per year, the company itself does not produce ammunition. New Lachaussée focuses exclusively on the design and manufacture of specialized equipment, most of which is exported to foreign customers. For a long time, one of the Belgian company’s clients was Russia.

After the occupation of Crimea in 2014 and the introduction of international sanctions against Russia, EU countries ceased trade in military products with the Russian Federation, which should also have ended New Lachaussée’s cooperation with Russian military enterprises. However, journalistic investigations published after the full-scale invasion indicate something quite different.
In 2022, the hacker group Anonymous released correspondence of top managers of the Russian Lipetsk Mechanical Plant (also known as LMZ), revealing that several months before the full-scale invasion, the management of the plant was helping the Kalashnikov Concern search for an ammunition production line. Acting as an intermediary, LMZ was actively negotiating with New Lachaussée. During these exchanges, the Russians received confidential data from a representative of the Belgian company.

A ‘Spark’ for Russian armaments

(Note for English-speaking readers: the Russian word for “Spark” is “Iskra”, which creates a wordplay in the title of this section)

In 2019, New Lachaussée supplied Novosibirsk Mechanical Plant Iskra JSC (also known as NMZ Iskra JSC) with a rotary unit for producing delay elements for detonator primers. The equipment was intended exclusively for civilian use and soon became part of a detonator production line for blasting operations in mining and coal extraction.

New Lachaussée logo on the equipment installed at the “Novosibirsk Mechanical Plant “Iskra”. Photo from the Internet.

At first glance, the Novosibirsk plant actively presents itself as a civilian enterprise. In reality, however, Iskra fulfills state defense orders, supplies products to enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex, and is part of the Rostec corporation. The plant holds a number of licenses from the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, some of which were issued long before cooperation with New Lachaussée and are directly related to military activities:

Since 2013 – a license for the development and production of weapons, military equipment, and ammunition.
Since 2015 – a license for the sale of ammunition and pyrotechnic products.
Since 2022 – a license for the development of service and civilian weapons.

Data on the licenses and activities of NMZ Iskra JSC had been publicly available on the Internet for years, as was information about the company’s affiliation with Rostec and its numerous supplies of military products to enterprises of Russia’s military-industrial complex. Even if the equipment manufactured by New Lachaussée did not have a direct application in the production of weapons components, it still helped modernize the plant and economically strengthen a Russian enterprise associated with military research.

However, the story does not end there. Recently, at the height of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Russia appears to have once again received equipment manufactured by NLC. This time, however, it did not arrive from Belgium.

Russian importers – Chinese partners

This is not the first time the supplier has worked with Russians. The company had already been flagged during the visit of the sanctioned governor of Irkutsk Oblast, Igor Kobzev, to China in 2024. During the meeting Fushun Huarui Chemical Technology Development even reached an agreement on cooperation with one of the Russian funds

Moreover, according to Russian import data, in 2024 the main client of Fushun Huarui Chemical Technology Development was the already familiar Novosibirsk Iskra plant, for which the Chinese company carried out six shipments of electronic modules and conductors totaling nearly USD 2 million. And only the last shipment – the New Lachaussée extrusion press – was suddenly addressed to another company, the Russian Trading Company Mir LLC. And this company, too, is rather suspicious.

Trading Company Mir was founded in Moscow five months after the start of the full-scale invasion, when Russian industry had already begun to experience the severe effects of international sanctions. Since 2023, TC Mir has signed Declarations of Conformity for dozens of prohibited components of all kinds. The list includes American microchips, Chinese flight controllers, cameras with sensors, GPS modules, and other products repeatedly found in Russian weapons.

Western microelectronics imported into Russia by Trading Company Mir during the full-scale invasion. Screenshot from the Internet (automatically translated from Russian using Google Translate).

The company’s suspicious activities quickly attracted the attention of Ukrainian intelligence. Specialists of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine established that TC Mir supplied servo motors produced by the Korean manufacturer Dynamixel to Russia; these were subsequently used in the production of “Banderol” cruise missiles, with which Russia has been attacking Ukraine since spring 2025. This example makes it clear that sanctioned components passing through the trading company ultimately end up at enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex. Only one question remains open: to whom could TC Mir have transferred the New Lachaussée equipment?

It turns out that the parent structure of TC Mir, Logistics Company Mir LLC, until 2021 was part of Tekhnodinamika, a holding company of the state corporation Rostec, which also includes NMZ Iskra. Moreover, along with other enterprises, Iskra is directly listed among the partners of Logistics Company Mir, which, like its subsidiary, is engaged in the transportation of dangerous goods.

Taking into account Iskra’s past contracts with New Lachaussée, the plant’s trade with the Chinese company Fushun Huarui Chemical Technology Development, and its partnership with Logistics Company Mir, it can be assumed that in 2024 the NLC extrusion press did indeed supplement the production line of the Novosibirsk plant.

In response to an inquiry from Belgian journalist François Corbiau, New Lachaussée stated that an extrusion press of this model has no application in military systems and does not constitute a dual-use item. The manufacturer emphasized that it cannot control the end user after the equipment is resold by an independent third party, and therefore the press could have been lawfully resold to any purchaser.