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Where do Russian snipers get American and European scopes from?

This is not a problem - tens of thousands of them are imported to Russia “for installation on hunting weapons”

DATE
26 DEC 2023
AUTHOR
ROMAN ROMANOVSKY

“Nazism should not exist on our soil, and Nazism must be destroyed,” says a sniper from a volunteer unit of Espanyol football fans in a video on a Belarusian propaganda TV channel. A fighter poses with a sniper rifle, equipped with an optical sight from the Austrian company Kahles, which produces products for hunting and sports shooting. On YouTube you can find dozens of videos in which Russian fighters demonstrate sights from Western manufacturers - Leupold (USA), Nightforce - one , two , three , four (USA - Japan), Holosun (USA - China), Swarovski Optik (Austria).

According to customs data, in 2022–2023, sights worth 16 billion rubles were imported into Russia. The purpose is “for installation on hunting weapons” and “not for military use.” But in reality, as YouTube shows, at least some of them end up at the front in Ukraine.


Among the import champions are the online stores Pointer and Navigator .

“Pointer” from St. Petersburg operates under the slogan “We have everything for a successful hunt.” Since the beginning of the war, the company has imported almost 50 thousand sights from the American-Chinese manufacturer Holosun for more than 3 billion rubles. And the total amount of goods for hunting and sports, many of which are also used at the front, is 17 billion rubles.

“Hunting” goods from Pointer in 2022–2023 were purchased, in particular, by arms companies. Manufacturer of Orsis rifles, Promtekhnologiya, by 55 million rubles. The Hunt store, owned by the Bespoke Gun rifle manufacturers, costs 33 million rubles.

Since the beginning of the war, Navigator from Moscow has imported sights worth approximately 400 million rubles, including more than 2 thousand Holosun. And the total amount of goods is 4.5 billion rubles.


Among his buyers is the St. Petersburg-based Tekhnologiya, which was associated with the late owner of the Wagner PMC, Evgeniy Prigozhin. It purchased optics, rangefinders, glasses and other equipment for 140 million rubles. The Moscow arms company, which produces Bespoke Gun rifles, purchased American Nightforce optical sights and other goods for 12 million rubles. And the Hunt hunting store associated with it was worth 19 million. The rifle manufacturer Lobaev Arms, Design Bureau of Integrated Systems, also shopped at Navigator for 21 million rubles.


The import of scopes and other goods “for hunting”, of course, is carried out through parallel imports - manufacturers most likely do not know where their goods end up. Pointer uses intermediaries in China, Navigator in Turkey and Kazakhstan.

Neither Pointer nor Navigator responded to the request from Important Stories.

Hopefully American companies are not exporting to them. I couldn't even get a quart-size GI waterbottle sent to me from US stores.

Was in Turkey quite recently. In the same hotel was a group of Russian hunters there for a few days of driven hunting. As far as I could see all had German rifles and all had Swarovski scopes mounted.

As I recall based on firearms they probably got them from OBama and ATF along with the guns the smuggled into Mexico that ended up in Cartel hands, quietly was dropped and ignored, Could this a secret!!

There may be some weird, CIA reason for the Mexican deal, Ray, but I can't see why Obama would have dealt in arms with the Russians. Others seem to like them a lot, though.

The Mexico deal with the ATF was called "Fast and furious". Was to allow firearms to get into Mexico through "straw" buyers to track those firearms. There was no way for ATF to track anything that got into Mexico! Just another gun control ploy! "Look at all those guns from the U.S. in Mexico"! It fell apart when a Customs agent was killed with a rifle traced back that Obama let across the border! Last budget bill had money for terrorist groups! CIA probably bought scopes for Russia!

All those scopes in the attachment are made in China, including the Leupold copies. The European ones:?
And No, the US Govt did not send scopes to Russia.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
All those scopes in the attachment are made in China, including the Leupold copies. The European ones:?
And No, the US Govt did not send scopes to Russia.

The governments do not directly send stuff but private companies will supply anyone who can put up the $$$.

I know this for a fact because we get brands in South Africa that are banned for export by countries like Germany,USA etc