Inna Popovych, investigative journalist at Trap Aggressor project by Kyiv think tank StateWatch
Recently, Russian Serov Mechanical Plant ordered a universal processing center from the German manufacturer Spinner. Reporters of the investigative project Trap Aggressor by Kyiv think tank StateWatch have learnt that soon, on September 21, the expected shipment will be received by the customer.
The Russian plant ordered a machine tool of the U5-630 model, which is used for high-precision processing of parts with complicated profiles, in particular parts of tank shells in the war against the Ukrainians.
As far as we know, on August 30 of 2023, the machine tool was loaded on a truck in Turkey (where one of the branch offices of the company Spinner is located) to take it to the ferry plying between Istanbul and Tuapse. The Russian plant expects the equipment by the end of September, with the Russian YUMAK company being the importer of the given machine.
This information has been confirmed by the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption. They sent an official letter directly to the producer Spinner to inform them that the machine tool had virtually been sold to the Russian Army and would be used to produce ammunition.
The company Spinner Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik GmbH (headquartered in Munich, Germany) is a German producer of high-precision machines with industrial capabilities in Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey. It has had a representative office in Moscow, the Russian Federation, since 2011. The information about this Russian office can still be found on the company’s website.
In 2021, the company Spinner supplied its machines directly to the company RT-Tekhpriyemka (sanctioned by the USA, Switzerland and Ukraine), which is responsible for the control of quality and the increase of production efficiency of companies within the Rostekh corporation.
In the same way, following the start of the full-scale invasion, in July and August of 2022, the importers of Spinner equipment included the Russian special design bureau Kristall (sanctioned by Ukraine), which produces spare parts for the Russian military aircraft SU and MIG. Spinner Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik GmbH directly supplied machine tools worth over 1 million US dollars. The machine tools were supplied from Germany twice and from Turkey once.
On December 12, 2022 and July 20, 2023, the Russian V.V. Tarasov Aviaavtomatika company, which develops spare parts for fighter jets SU-35, being under sanctions of the UE, USA, Switzerland, Japan and Ukraine, published a notice on entering into contracts on leasing machine tools made by Hermle (Germany) and Spinner (Germany). The final consumer remained unknown.
In 2023, the German Spinners stopped supplying its goods to companies of the Russian military and industrial complex and started using intermediary companies and countries such as Turkey, the UAE, China, Kyrgyzstan in order to disguise final consumers and circumvent the sanctions.
Moreover, in 2023, the total amount of supplies of the Spinner equipment to the Russian Federation comes to 10.5 million dollars which is by 6 times more than in 2021.