German court sentenced a businessman who supplied drone components to Russia to six years in prison

A court in Germany sentenced a German citizen with dual German-Russian citizenship to six years and nine months in prison for selling electronics to Russian companies for military use in violation of sanctions.

The Stuttgart court declared that between January 2020 and May 2023, the 59-year-old man delivered 120,000 parts to Russia for military use, Reuters reported.

According to the court’s decision, parts were used in the Orlan-10 drone, which the Russian army uses in the war against Ukraine.

The decision states that after the outbreak of a large-scale war in Ukraine, the defendant tried to conceal the sales to Russian companies by using documents for destinations such as Hong Kong and Turkey.

In passing sentence, the court stated that it “took into account the criminal energy expended by him—in particular, in the form of circumventing sanctions after February 2022—as well as the long period of transactions and their significant volume.”.

The decision also states that the convicted person confessed to the crime and expressed regret. His 54-year-old business partner received a shorter suspended sentence.

Earlier, Vladimir Likhutin, a businessman of Russian descent, recently became the first resident of the Czech Republic to receive an official conviction for breaking anti-Russian sanctions.

Also, recently, the Dutch company Dieseko made an out-of-court settlement payment of 1.78 million euros to the Dutch budget following the publication of information about its involvement in the construction of the Russian Kerch Bridge in the illegally occupied Crimea.