Journalists of the national Finnish television and radio company Yle investigated companies that continued to export their goods to Russia after the invasion to Ukraine. During the investigation, journalists obtained the customs declarations, which show that more than 20 Finnish companies exported sensors, diesel engines, fuel pumps and transmission equipment to Russia. The same elements were found in destroyed Russian equipment on the territory of Ukraine – Yle report.
The journalists also noted that Finnish companies supplied Russia with equipment needed for military research and development as well as for intelligence. In particular, signal analyzing devices, frequency synthesizers, accessories for printed circuit boards, optical devices and voltmeters.
Companies operating in Finland either exported goods directly to Russia or acted as intermediaries between a foreign seller and a Russian buyer. In this case, the Finnish companies were responsible for handling the cargo, that is, storing and processing the necessary documents.
The journalists discovered that representatives from at least two of the suspected companies have a connection to past criminal proceedings. Moreover, US authorities in 2023 added two Finnish companies to the sanctions list for supplying Russia with components for unmanned aerial vehicles, which were ordered by the Military intelligence of Russia.
The journalists approached the representatives of the suspected Finnish companies for an interview, but did not receive any comments.
Intelligence specialist Miko Porvalli emphasized in his report that current activities of Russian authorities are facilitated by the fact that all Russian citizens, including people with dual citizenship, are obliged to assist the security agencies by Russian law.
“Russia is capable of forcing its citizens to cooperate with its authorities through administrative fines or imprisonment as well as other sanctions should any Russian citizen fails to cooperate”, Porvali said.
The Russian client of the Finnish company published letters of gratitude on its website, in which the FSB praises the Finnish company for the cooperation in good faith. The text on the picture have been translated from Russian into Finnish.
