German-made industrial machinery continued to reach Russia’s Uralkali via Uzbekistan despite European Union export restrictions, according to an investigation by the newsroom CORRECTIV.
Customs data examined by the outlet indicate shipments worth at least 4.5 million US dollars, and suggest a total close to 30 million euros, to the fertiliser producer after the EU banned such exports.
Uralkali, a potash miner and fertiliser manufacturer based in the Ural region, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of potassium chloride. Deliveries of equipment to the company therefore feed into the wider assessment of whether sanctions are limiting Moscow’s income from key industrial sectors.
The investigation focuses on Maschinenfabrik Köppern, a family-owned engineering firm from Hattingen in Germany’s Ruhr area that has supplied roller presses and related machinery to Uralkali for years. Russian media reported the installation of Köppern presses at an Uralkali mine as early as 2008, and the firm later opened a subsidiary in St Petersburg. That direct relationship ended after February 2022, when the EU prohibited exports of machinery used to press mineral substances to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.
From November 2023, however, a company in Uzbekistan appears to have taken over as an intermediary. CORRECTIV’s analysis of Uzbek customs records shows that a Tashkent-based firm, Etc U Stan, began importing high-value consignments from Köppern in late 2023. In several instances, matching shipments – identical in weight and declared value and, in some cases, even in spelling errors in the description – were dispatched by the Uzbek firm to Russia within days, with Uralkali listed as the recipient.
One example concerns a wooden crate weighing 17,925 kilograms, exported by Köppern to Etc U Stan on 1 November 2023. Freight documents describe the contents as switchgear and crushing machinery worth roughly 350,000 dollars. Two days later, customs data record a crate of the same weight leaving Uzbekistan for Russia, labelled as a “part of equipment for the granulation of KCl”, or potassium chloride, with Uralkali as the end customer.
Between November 2023 and May 2024, CORRECTIV identified 14 such pairs of export and re-export entries, with a combined declared value of about 4.5 million dollars. A separate analysis of German and Uzbek statistics suggests that, for certain types of machinery, most exports from Germany to Uzbekistan were subsequently sold on to Uralkali, with an overall value close to 30 million euros.
Trade specialists say the pattern is consistent with sanctions circumvention via third countries, already documented for a range of dual-use and high-technology goods. Under EU rules, companies are barred not only from delivering listed equipment directly to Russia but also from arranging indirect supplies via third countries when they know, or reasonably suspect, that a Russian entity is the final customer.
Exporters of some categories of goods must include contractual clauses ruling out re-export to Russia. Although the machinery supplied by Köppern is not in a category where such clauses are mandatory, experts interviewed by CORRECTIV questioned whether additional safeguards and due diligence would have been appropriate in light of the scale of the orders and the links of the Uzbek buyer to the Russian chemicals trade.
Köppern did not answer questions from CORRECTIV about the shipments to Uzbekistan, the end use of the machinery and any compliance measures in place. The Uzbek company also failed to respond to the outlet’s requests for comment. Two German manufacturers whose equipment appears in customs data as part of deliveries to Uralkali told investigators they had supplied their products to Köppern for use in Uzbekistan and were not aware of any onward transfer to Russia.
According to CORRECTIV, one of those suppliers notified Germany’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control after receiving an anonymous tip that a conveyor system delivered via Köppern might have been redirected to Russia. The agency declined to comment on the specific case.
The case is likely to increase pressure on Berlin and Brussels to tighten monitoring of exports to Russia’s neighbours and to address remaining loopholes in the sanctions regime. Continued access to Western-designed technology through intermediaries would help Uralkali maintain production at, or close to, pre-war levels.
Russian Fertiliser Exports to the EU Soar Amid Rising Energy Costs and Geopolitical Disruptions
