Machine tools from Belarusian and European brands were supplied to the Russian military-industrial complex by Belarusian businessmen

This investigation was produced with the assistance of the Rabochy Ruch initiative and the support of CyberPartisans.

Torgovyi Dom Belorusskie Stanki (Belarusian Machine Tools Trading House), referred to as the "trading house" in the text, is registered in Smolensk. On its website, the company promotes itself as the official dealer for nine Belarusian machine tool manufacturers. The company also organizes presentations of Belarusian equipment for representatives of the Russian military-industrial complex. Ukraine imposed sanctions on the trading house in April 2023. At the time of publication, the company was not on any other countries’ sanctions lists, although its clients in recent years have included at least 27 enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex, including the Concern Kalashnikov, LOMO, NPO Almaz, and Votkinsky Zavod.

In a letter dated June 2026 and addressed to its partners, [*] which we obtained thanks to the Rabochy Ruch initiative, the company listed the holding companies and corporations of the Russian military-industrial complex with which it cooperates: Rostec, Tactical Missiles Corporation, Vysokotochnye Kompleksy, United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation, and others. The letter emphasized that the trading house works with “manufacturers and suppliers based in Asian countries, the European Union, and the United States,” and included a list of 42 foreign brands represented in its supply portfolio.

Other documents obtained by the BIC from the Rabochy Ruch initiative reveal that the trading house received payments from 20 companies in the Russian military-industrial complex in the second half of 2025 alone. During this period, they transferred 79.3 million Russian rubles — equivalent to around $988,000 — to the dealer. The largest payer was the small-arms manufacturer ZID. Over the course of six months, the company received two payments totaling 46 million Russian rubles (approximately $573,000) from the plant. Two of Belorusskie Stanki’s other major clients were the Concern Kalashnikov and LOMO, a manufacturer of optical and optoelectronic devices. These companies transferred a total of 24.5 million Russian rubles (approximately $300,000) to the trading house.

We were unable to determine precisely what goods or services the defense enterprises paid for. Available court documents reveal details of some earlier transactions. The BIC found at least eight cases in the archives of Russian arbitration courts in which Torgovyi Dom Belorusskie Stanki was involved in litigation with enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex between 2023 and 2026.

German-brand machine tools for the Russian defense industry

Court documents indicate that the trading house supplied Russian defense enterprises with machine tools not only from Belarusian brands, but also from European ones. On June 18, 2023, the company signed a contract with the Novo-Vyatka ammunition manufacturer to supply OPTImill MT 200 universal milling machines from the German brand Optimum. [*] 

Between April 2022 and June 2023, the European Union gradually expanded its export bans to cover various types of machine tools destined for Russia.. The BIC was unable to determine exactly when the OPTImill MT 200s arrived in Russia. Therefore, we cannot say that this transaction involved circumventing EU sanctions.. In a previous investigation, the BIC found that machine tools from the same German brand were manufactured in China and shipped directly from there to Russia.

In another case, however, we were able to identify the equipment supplier. According to customs data, the trading house received two IMM 72713 belt grinders from Belarus in September 2023. These were manufactured by the German company IMM Maschinenbau. This type of equipment is used in aircraft manufacturing to grind turbine blades. In July 2023, the trading house registeredan EAEU declaration of conformity to sell this model on the Russian market. [*] However, the European Union had banned the supply of this model to Russia five months earlier. A similar ban regarding Belarus was introduced later, on July 1, 2024.

“Prices of some Western components have skyrocketed as a result of sanctions, but this doesn’t always prompt companies in the Russian defense industry to consider analogues.. When it comes to machine tools, sanctions pressure has clearly not yet driven prices up by a large enough multiple to make replacing them economically worthwhile.,” said Olena Bilousova, Co-Lead of Defense Research at KSE Institute, in a comment to the BIC.

The machine tool was supplied by TradeServiceGroup, a company registered in Vitsebsk. According to customs data analyzed by the BIC, this company supplied products to Torgovyi Dom Belorussie Stanki from outside of Russia.

The trading house’s website catalog also features European components. The company provides machine tools that are equipped with products from Schneider Electric of France, as well as from Germany’s Bosch Rexroth and Siemens.

“When a customer requests Siemens, we work with Siemens. It is probably the most advanced system in the world right now. However, software licensing support, long component delivery times, and the availability of technical support in some countries leave much to be desired,” reads a website post.

Same owners on both sides of the border

The Russian company Torgovyi Dom Belorusskie Stanki and the Belarusian company TradeServiceGroup have the same owners. One of them is Siarhei Labatsevich, who is currently a soccer referee in Belarus. In the second half of the 2000s, he worked at the Vitsebsk-based machine tool factory Vistan. His business partner, Siarhei Fadzeyeu, also has ties to soccer. In 2005, he played a season for FC Orsha in the second division of the Belarusian Championship.

As of this publication, Fadzeyeu is the head of the Vitebsk-based company, TradeServiceGroup. The company’s co-owners are Fadzeyeu’s wife Volha and Siarhei Labatsevich. In addition to Torgovyi Dom Belorusskie Stanki, Siarhei Fadzeyeu owns stakes in three other Russian firms: Torgovyi Dom Belimport, Bel-Logistik, and Evrotseminvest. His business partner in the first two is Siarhei Labatsevich.

The BIC sent questions to Torgovyi Dom Belorusskie Stanki and TradeServiceGroup regarding their collaboration with companies in the Russian military-industrial complex and their supplies of European equipment. As of the time of publication, no responses had been received. A BIC journalist also contacted Siarhei Fadzeyeu and Siarhei Labatsevich, but both businessmen declined to comment.