Politico: German company bypasses sanctions and supplies technology to Russia via Slovenia
A Politico investigation suggests that a German tech company may have exported technology to Russia via Slovenia despite new EU sanctions.
The investigation found that the company Kontron, which has offices across the EU, the UK and the US, used its Slovenian subsidiary to export telecommunications technology worth more than €3.5 million to its Russian subsidiary at the end of 2023.
This happened despite several waves of EU sanctions, including the 11th sanctions package introduced in June 2023 which aimed to restrict the export of advanced technologies and dual-use goods to Russia.
The export documents reviewed by the publication show that 11 shipments were made from Kontron's Slovenian subsidiary to Iskra Technologies, a Russian subsidiary, between July and November 2023, after the June sanctions had come into force.
The exported products included dual-use goods, including the SI3000 system, which can monitor and intercept telecommunications traffic.
The company stated that these deliveries were made under valid permits issued by the Slovenian government and related to contracts already concluded. It also said it had stopped all new shipments after June 2023.
"After the implementation of the 11th package of sanctions (23 June), we stopped exporting any new goods and only delivered already approved exports in compliance with issued export licences, in accordance with the EU sanctions in force," the company stated.
Politico noted that Kontron has previously announced its withdrawal from Russia. In particular, it condemned the "great human suffering" caused by the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine and said it would no longer invest in Russia.
However, Kontron remains present in the Russian market through its subsidiary Iskra Technologies, which was included in the EU sanctions list in December 2024. The company’s year-end report states that "Iskra Technologies is still 48.4 per cent owned by Kontron" through its Slovenian subsidiary.
At the journalists' request, Kontron did not specify who owns the remaining 51.6% of Iskra's shares but said it is a "Russian entity not related/associated with Russian state/state-owned companies".
The investigation also shows that Kontron's Slovenian branch has made at least 49 deliveries of SI3000 technology and spare parts to Kazakhstan since June 2023.
In addition, it is noted that Iskra Technologies merged with the Russian company RTSoft in August 2023, which Kontron called its "sister company". RTSoft had been licensed by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) to work with Russian classified information since 2016. However, Kontron claims that the licence was cancelled in April 2022.
Slovenian documents show that as of the end of 2023, Kontron d.o.o. held a €3.546 million loan to Iskra Technologies which falls due in 2026-2027. It also wrote off €6.393 million of debts owed by a Russian company in 2022.
EU sanctions ban providing financial assistance or making funds available to sanctioned entities. Kontron said that these loans remain active but have been reviewed for compliance with the sanctions.
For example, in October 2024, Finnish customs launched an investigation into a criminal scheme involving a company based in Finland's east that transported drones, sonar equipment, processors and other electronics worth several hundred thousand euros to Russia.
In these schemes, sanctioned goods are falsely declared as being destined for Central Asia or the Balkans, while their actual destination is Russia.
In early January 2025, it was reported that Finland continues to record attempts to export goods subject to sanctions to Russia due to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, even though the border was closed a year ago.