Despite the sanctions, Russia continues to import weapons from Western countries. So, the Russian side imported at least 3,606 Austrian Glock pistols.
Journalists of The Insider noted that 3,203 of them were produced by the Austrian manufacturer Glock Gmbh. and another 403 – American Glock Inc. A significant part of Russian Glock importers have business ties with European arms manufacturers.
Who is engaged in importing Glock to Russia
Investigative journalists noted that 667 Glock pistols were imported together by Kolchuga LLC (348 units), Orel LLC (63 units), Test-Zbroya LLC (1,081 units), and Fort LLC (175 units). These companies are related to Russian Eagle LLC, 58% of which is owned by Beretta Holding S.A.
In addition, LLC “Alliance” imported 150 pistols and 115 Austrian carbines ISSC SPA caliber .22 l.r. An investigation conducted by the Czech publication Investigace in cooperation with The Insider showed that the founders of Alliance LLC Filip Gulchak and Mykhailo Udalov also have a stake in the Czech company LYNXNIGHT s.r.o. In addition, Dana Prohazkova, business partner and managing director of LYNXNIGHT, is married to Vaclav Prohazka, who since the early 2000s represented the ammunition manufacturer Sellier & Bellot.
Other major Glock importers are Aurora LLC, which imported 545 pistols, Novo-Obninsk Import LLC, which imported 35 pistols and is owned by businessman Mykola Nefiolov, and Artemis LLC, which imported 421 pistols and belongs to Anatoly Yezhelev.
How pistols were produced in Russia and what does Rogozin have to do with it
Journalists emphasized that the production of Glock pistols was localized in Russia for two years. In July 2012, the Moscow arms plant “Promtechnologiya” announced in a press release that an agreement had been reached with the Glock GmbH company on the assembly of three models of Glock semi-automatic pistols of the fourth generation (Glock 17, 34 and 35). According to the terms of the agreement, Glock GmbH will provide the components, while the Moscow Arms Plant will handle the assembly process. Although the ad has since been removed, details from it can still be found in various blogs and publications, including Kalashnikov magazine.
In 2013, a scandal erupted over the purchase of over three hundred Glock pistols in Russia at inflated prices. Activists of the “Rapport” project and Oleksiy Navalny expressed concern about two tenders in which pistols were purchased at prices four times higher than retail value. Navalny also indicated that the son of then-Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Alexei Rogozin, previously worked at the Promtechnologiya company responsible for the assembly of pistols.
Dmitry Rogozin himself in October 2022, shortly before suffering wounded in the buttock at a banquet in a Donetsk restaurant, posed in front of journalists with a new Austrian Glock in the temporarily occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Journalists mocked that the former head of Roscosmos went “to fight against NATO in NATO equipment.” After all, almost all of Rogozin's clothes and equipment – from a winter jacket to a lifejacket and boots – was made in Europe or the USA.