In the years preceding Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European companies quietly transferred billions of dollars of high-tech machinery to the Russian military industry, providing the backbone for the industrial capacity needed to launch its aggression against Ukraine.
This team of researchers, utilising Russian customs data, developed an AI-powered platform to help journalists investigate the companies that made bumper profits from this trade. From millions of lines of trade data, journalists unearthed sanctions-avoidance networks operating across Europe long before the renewed sanctions that followed Russia’s 2022 offensive.
Using artificial intelligence trained on European sanctions legislation, the Tools of War project has sifted through trade data to highlight potentially risky transactions, enabling further investigations into the machine tools trade.
From Danish businessmen selling high-value technology to Russian military factories to intermediaries routing sensitive goods through Baltic shell companies, the project exposes how Europe’s precision industry quietly feeds Moscow’s war machine.
Key findings
- €3.4 billion in ‘highly-likely’ dual-use machinery exported from the EU to Russia (2019–2022)
- 125,000 shipments flagged with dual-use potential
- Baltic intermediaries channelled hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment across the border to Russia
- Both German traders and manufacturers were the largest suppliers to Russia
On the right: Photograph by Tima Miroshnichenko/Pexels.
