The federal prosecutor’s office has obtained an arrest warrant against a German-Russian for violating sanctions. The entrepreneur from Saarland is said to have delivered electronic components for drones to Russia.
The federal prosecutor’s office has issued an arrest warrant against a German-Russian businessman for violations of the existing sanctions. “The accused is strongly suspected of having repeatedly violated the Foreign Trade and Payments Act on a commercial basis,” the Karlsruhe prosecutor said, referring to existing sanctions by the European Union against Russia.
As managing director of two companies in Saarland, the accused is said to have given electronic components to a Russian company that produces military material and accessories in 26 cases. This includes the Orlan 10 drone deployed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
This photo provided by the TASS state agency shows Russian military personnel preparing to launch an Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicle.
Components worth more than 700,000 euros
The components delivered between January 2020 and March 2023 worth more than 700,000 euros are subject to the Russia Embargo Ordinance, as the supreme German prosecutor explained. In order to avoid the sanctions, the German-Russian first imported the goods from abroad to Germany and then brought them to Russia via a company in Baden-Württemberg. Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, the components have also reached Russia via Dubai and Lithuania.
The man has been in custody since mid-March following an arrest warrant from the Mannheim district court. A little later, the investigation was taken over by the federal prosecutor’s office because of the special importance of the case. This in turn obtained an arrest warrant on Monday.