The global supply trail that leads to Russia’s killer drones
The hundreds of Russian drones hovering ominously over the Ukrainian battlefield owe their existence to an elastic, sanctions-evading supply chain that often runs through a shabby office above a Hong Kong marketplace, and sometimes through a yellow stucco home in suburban Florida.
An investigation by Reuters and iStories, a Russian media outlet, in collaboration with the Royal United Services Institute, a defence think tank in London, has uncovered a logistical trail that spans the globe, including Canada, and ends at the Orlan’s production line, the Special Technology Centre in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Among the most important suppliers to Russia’s drone program has been a Hong Kong-based exporter, Asia Pacific Links Ltd, which, according to Russian customs and financial records, provided millions of dollars in parts, though never directly. Many of the parts are microchips from U.S. manufacturers.
Asia Pacific’s exports to Russia were primarily delivered to one importer in St. Petersburg with close ties to the Special Technology Centre, those customs records show. The import company, SMT iLogic, shares an address with the drone maker and has numerous other connections.
Asia Pacific’s owner, Anton Trofimov, is an expatriate Russian who graduated from a Chinese university and has other business interests in China as well as a company in Toronto, Canada, according to his LinkedIn profile and other corporate filings.
According to public records, Trofimov is a resident of a modest East York neighbourhood of Toronto. He did not respond to questions sent by email and LinkedIn. A woman who answered the door identified herself as Trofimov’s wife and said she would pass along a message for him to contact Reuters. He never did.
