Five people were sentenced in a case involving Chinese-made components supplied to the Kalashnikov Concern for AK-12 rifles while being presented as Russian-made, The Insider reported after reviewing case materials.
The Khimki City Court handed down sentences ranging from a 7.5-year suspended term to nine years in prison. The defendants were convicted in a case involving large-scale fraud and the smuggling of firearm components by an organized group. The trial was held behind closed doors.
According to investigators, contractors purchased the parts from two Chinese companies and declared them as screw nuts when importing them. Kalashnikov was not informed when the contract was signed that the products had been manufactured in China using Russian technical drawings.
In October 2023, the concern signed a contract worth nearly 110 million rubles with Intertekhnika for the supply of 80,000 semi-finished components for AK-12 rifles.
The Insider compared the contract value with the contractor's financial statements. Intertekhnika reported revenue of 2.23 million rubles in 2023, roughly 49 times less than the value of the contract. According to Federal Tax Service data, the company's average headcount that year was zero.
A lawyer for one of the defendants had previously argued that the customer knew the parts were being manufactured abroad and that some of the products had passed quality control.