Russian businessman in Brussels with ties to the GRU supplies defense equipment to Russia to circumvent sanctions - The Insider
Kyiv • UNN
Russian citizen Viktor Labin lives in Brussels near the EU and NATO offices. Through his Belgian company, he supplies Russian defense firms with Western equipment in violation of sanctions. His son Ruslan's Russian company imports and maintains tools used in Russian military production.
Russian citizen Viktor Labin, probably connected to the Russian Ministry of Defense and Russian intelligence, lives in Brussels just a few kilometers from the offices of the European Commission and NATO and supplies all Russian defense to the Kremlin from there, avoiding European sanctions. This is stated in the investigation of The Insider, reports UNN.
Details
Labin has been living in Belgium since at least 2000 and has his own company, Groupe d'investissement Financier, there. According to the newspaper, "one of his sons helps him run his business, while the other organizes protests in Europe in support of the Kremlin.
For example, Viktor Labin's son Ruslan is the owner of the Moscow-based Sonatek company, which supplies dozens of Russian defense companies with measuring instruments.
Although government orders in the defense sector have been classified in recent years, The Insider has information that Sonatec provided supply and maintenance services to at least 18 Russian defense companies in 2022. "Sonatec imports measuring devices from different countries, including Italy (Tomelleri Engineering), Germany (Messtechnik) and the UK (Aberlink). Russia has not been able to establish import substitution for such devices, so the Russian military-industrial complex is vital to the imported products supplied by Sonatec
It is noted that Labine uses his company Groupe d'investissement Financier for deliveries to Russia.
He had previously shipped goods directly to Russia, most often to his own Sonatek address, but in April 2023, he began using a shell company from Turkey with a name similar to his Belgian company: GROUPE dinvestissement FINANCI OSBORNE, and now deliveries go through it.
