Nikkei: Russia buys weapons components sold to Asia

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Russia is allegedly buying back arms components previously sold to India and Myanmar. This was reported by the Nikkei agency, which analyzed the customs documents.

It follows from them that Russian suppliers are buying out parts for tanks and missiles that were previously sent under contracts to Asian countries. For example, by December 9, 2022, the Russian tank manufacturer Uralvagonzavod withdrew $24 million worth of its own military products from Myanmar. Judging by the encodings, these are mainly optics for tanks.

In the customs documents, the reason for returning the equipment to the supplier indicates the defects found. However, military experts interviewed by the Nikkei doubt this option. According to them, by taking away defective parts under warranty, the supplier would have been obliged to send new ones to replace them, which did not happen. In addition, the volume of products sent back is too large to talk about such a massive marriage.

In August and November 2022, the Russian NPK KBM (Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering) bought six night vision navigation devices for ground-to-air missiles of its own production from the Indian Ministry of Defense in August and November 2022.

Nikkei suggests that this equipment is used by Russia to upgrade its own weapons, which are then sent to the war in Ukraine.

Source: Radio Svoboda