Sanctioned Russian Firms Sold $2BN Air Defense System to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia agreed to pay sanctioned Russian arms companies more than two billion euros for the Palantir air defense system, according to leaked documents. Trade data shows that some equipment was delivered in 2023, the year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Details about arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other countries are included in leaked emails and internal documents from Roselectronics, which were analyzed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).


The Pantsir is a self-propelled air defense missile and gun system which can shoot down missiles, airplanes, helicopters, aerial bombs, and drones, like the recent Azerbaijani Airlines flight.

The documents show that Saudi Arabia ordered 39 trucks capable of shooting down aircraft, as well as ten vehicles housing “command posts” to direct the operations of combat vehicles. Also included in the purchase were hundreds of missiles, as well as additional vehicles.

A sanctioned Rostec subsidiary called United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation, was appointed to oversee the supply of the radio communications systems that were also purchased under the contract.



Efforts were made to conceal the identities of the clients.

For example, in the de-coded documents, foreign customer “012” stands for Algeria. In 2022, Russia was going to supply Algeria with its Acacia-E automatic aerospace defense system.

Foreign customer “364” of the Post-3M radio reconnaissance station in 2021 was Iran. Foreign customer “818″ of the Polyana-D4M1 command and control system is Egypt. Project 82P is Saudi Arabia. The “82” is a part of the country code for Saudi Arabia (682), and the letter “P” refers to the product name — Pantsir.

And these Russian arms sales provide geo-political influence at the UN.

Saudi Arabia voted for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine while promising to provide Ukraine with $400 million in humanitarian aid. However, Riyadh abstained from voting on more than half of the UN resolutions regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Other countries doing arms deals with the Kremlin either voted in Russia’s favor or abstained: Algeria, Egypt, India, Uganda, Belarus, China, Uganda, Ethiopia.




President Trump’s first official phone calls included one to bully the Danish PM over selling Greenland to the US. His other call was to Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS), the notorious murderer of Saudi dissident/journalist Jamal Khashoggi and financial backer of Jared Kushner, his son-in-law. Whatever matters these two malefactors discussed, it wasn’t in the best interest of international peace, justice, or the masses.


Sources:

https://www.occrp.org/en/scoop/sanctioned-russian-firms-sold-2b-air-defense-system-to-saudi-arabia-leaked-documents-show

https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2024/european-arms-imports-nearly-double-us-and-french-exports-rise-and-russian-exports-fall-sharply