With friends like these…
An arms embargo of Russia went into effect back in 2015. A loophole allowed countries to continue arms shipments agreed to prior to that date. The two biggest users of said loophole were Germany and France. Together they sent nearly €275,000,000 worth of military equipment to Russia from 2015 to 2020.
From The Telegraph;
France continued to issue dozens of arms export licences to Russia after the EU imposed an embargo on weapons sales to Vladimir Putin’s regime in 2014, media reports claim.
According to the investigative website Disclose, between 2015 and 2020 French companies exported military equipment to Russia worth €152m (£127m), with the government issuing companies more than 70 licences to export arms to Moscow.
Another report by the independent group of journalists Investigate Europe revealed that 10 EU member states continued to export military equipment to Russia after the 2014 embargo, but that France was by far the biggest offender, accounting for 44 per cent of sales.
Investigate Europe’s probe reveals that since 2015, France has authorised the export to Russia of bombs, rockets, torpedoes, missiles and explosive charges, as well as imaging equipment, navigation systems, aircraft and “lighter-than-air vehicles”.
Disclose reported that France had exported thermal imaging cameras for 1,000 Russian tanks after the embargo.
In response, the French Armed Forces Ministry said that France had “allowed the execution of certain contracts concluded before 2014”, something that is permitted under the terms of the embargo.
This “residual flow” of weapons to Russia had since “gradually died out”, the French government said.
The revelations come as Russia continues to subject the Ukrainian population to a barrage of bombs and missile attacks after launching a full-scale invasion of the country in late February.
Figures from the EU Council Working Party on Conventional Arms Exports (COARM), analysed by Investigate Europe, show that the number of licences issued by France allowing companies to export military equipment to Russia spiked in 2015, immediately after the EU embargo, which was implemented in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and involvement in the Donbas region.
In 2014, the report says, French authorities were still giving authorisation to send material to Russia including chemical agents, biological agents, riot control agents and radioactive materials.
The COARM data shows that 10 EU member states exported military equipment worth a total of €346 million to Russia between 2015 and 2020.
After France, Germany exported €122 million worth of what it called “dual-use equipment”, comprising mainly of icebreaker vessels but also rifles and “special protection” vehicles.
In 2015 Italy authorised the company Iveco to sell Lynce military all-terrain vehicles to Russia, which have since been spotted in the battlefield in Ukraine by Italian TV channel La7.
The other countries on the list are Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Finland, Slovakia and Spain.
The Telegraph cribs a lot from Disclose NGO, whose original reporting can be found here.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Dumbass Bullshit, Foreign Policy, Russia
The Military Industrial Complex is alive and well…and not just in the US. Seems like Ike made mention that the MIC was something that people needed to Be Aware of. Or did he say Beware of….?
I say again…the true enemies of this Country are China and the installed grubermint of the US. Until we wake up to this fact and do something about it America, as we knew it, is doomed. DOOOOOOOOMED I say…DOOOOOOOOMED. (ht 2 Thunderstixx)
Ike was right. I made a career out of it. The pension checks
show up the FIRST of each month. Life is good after making
weapons for a living. And the best part is I get to sit back and
watch the shit actually work like it was intended.
Peace brother.
True, some of my old work / components are doing what they were built to do.
Don’t worry, KEL-TEC got Ukraine’s back.
#FloridaMan
EVoRERiR1oY
I saw that; wasn’t sure to laugh or cry.
Well, it took 70 years for the hybrid drive he wanted for his version of the Tiger to work reliably enough:
Same two countries that were violating the arms embargo against Iraq in the late 90s early 2000s. Prior to Bush the second and Darth Cheney’s little war.
Putin may get a “victory” that wrecks Russia.
He keeps raising on an 8-high busted flush. However, Ukraine has a pair.
China egged Putin on, and they did so maliciously. They mean to own western Siberia, and Russia will soon lack the material and men to contest for it.
No doubt Xi wanted us to squander ourselves in this stupid adventure, allowing them to collect Taiwan, and the jugular of the global chip industry, as a bonus.
The one thing Biden has done right so far is not jump headfirst into actively adding US military participation to this idiocy. He may yet stumble bass-ackwards into it, but at least, so far, he didn’t go epic stupid.
Yet.
“ The one thing Biden has done right so far is not jump headfirst into actively adding US military participation to this idiocy. He may yet stumble bass-ackwards into it, but at least, so far, he didn’t go epic stupid.
Yet.”
Big stress on the “Yet.”
As BHO said, never underestimate Joe’s ability to fornicate vertical.
Darth Lloyd Austin was heard to have said the below (see link) whilst stroking his Raytheon bonds.
The more things change, they don’t. Ever.
How old is old? Benjamin Franklin was a war profiteer.
My take away from the above – this is just one more reason why I don’t give a dead rats arse about our French ally. Or most NATO members. I wish “someone” had blown the Russian pipelines west of Poland a few weeks back. Let those yellow-bellied pearl clutching whiny sniveling Green virtue signaling cowards freeze then die in the chemically-, biologically- and radioactively-contaminated beds they made.
Not. One. Drop. Of. American. Blood.
Hey Western Europe- you bought it, you own it. The best of your continent long-ago emigrated here. Your utility is now spent.
YES! Let Eurotrash pick itself up.
Don’t hold back OAM, tell us how you REALLY feel. And as the Choir says AMEN Sister, may I offer you a frosty mug of the Sacramental Guinesses? Or would you prefer some ‘Merican Bourbon?
After letting that out, I think I need a slow-sippin Bourbon and a nap. Which the Bourbon will immediately induce. So, better make it a Guiness
If only the Germans had even half the spleen they had in either World War today… maybe Ukraine has been a wake-up (being dependent on Russky gas so they can go “green” and not spending 2% of defense) but it ain’t nowhere near:
Today’s Poland would roll through Germany in two weeks if they decided to do it and others stayed out.
They have been arming up, solidly, for quite a while. When they finally get their F-35s, things could get really interesting.
Germany thought by the time they’d have to go up against Russia again that they’d be in charge of a united European army.
Meanwhile, Ukraine kills another Russky general in combat (link originally about Kinzhal):
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-claims-used-hypersonic-missiles-143747256.html
Five Russian generals killed in two months (so far) .
0 American generals killed in 20 years.
We lost MG Harold Greene in A-Stan 2014.
I find it ironic that the number one provider of weapons to the world for the use of communists, their sympathizers and anyone with general evil intent is now importing weapons. Whoda thunkit
The French and the Germans are ‘pragmatic’… they do what they see is to their own short-term advantage. Only. Now, funny thing, if Russia started making noises about invading THEM, you can bet they would come tugging on our coattails in a heartbeat. Bet it would be real amusing to see their faces when we responded with “say, remember when we asked for your help boycotting Iraq? Iran? Russia? Yeah, so do we…”
“……who needs enemas.”
You need to rearrange your name to make a nifty acronym so you won’t run out of spa
I seen to remember US forces finding French anti tank missiles with a manufactured date of 02-2002 in March of 2002 outside of Baghdad. Same timeframe as Baghdad Bob telling people there were no US troops within 100 miles of Baghdad while the Armored Calvary was driving 1 block over.
The reasons our aggressive behavior toward Iraq met with their disapproval was they didn’t want to lose a customer.