Pranker Evgeniy Volnov from Ukraine attended a closed meeting at the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, which was held via videoconference. Video about this Volnov published April 17, Pay attention to the video Convert it Astra post identifying some of the meeting participants.
The edited recording, which lasts just over a minute, shows that drone production was discussed at the meeting (this is followed by the presentation that participants watched on the video call).
One of the meeting participants says in a voiceover that her company faced a “problem with raw materials” needed for the batteries. It is interested in the proportion of foreign-made raw materials that should be in the products.
According to her, in Russia you cannot buy raw materials available in other countries. “If we take some copper wire, which – as everyone knows, I think my colleagues will not let me lie – is manufactured exclusively in China. That is, if we take only electrical equipment, 90% of it is always foreign raw materials. It is simply not produced in Russia,” says the participant in the recording.
attention. There is a swear word in the next paragraph. It says what the scammer told the meeting participants.
In the second part of the video, the prankster Evgeny Volnov asks the question: “Colleagues, can you hear me?” He then rudely insulted the mothers of the meeting participants. When a bald-headed official asks to disconnect Volnov from the video call, the prankster adds: “All your fuckers have been filmed, so gentlemen, go look around. Yes, yes, you, bald, first and foremost.”
According to the publication of Volnov and Astra, the meeting was attended by the head of the Department of Unmanned Systems and Robotics of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Alexei Serdyuk (it was he who the scammer called bald). In addition, the meeting was attended by:
- Alexander Plotnikov, an employee of the same UAV department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade,
- Daniil Abulov, who provides support to drone manufacturers in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense and public organizations,
- Employee of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Alexander Lysenko,
- Andrei Titov, associated with the enterprises of the military-industrial complex,
- Andrei Sukharev, also associated with the military-industrial complex,
- Aisen Nesterov, Director of Asset Protection, ANO Center for Unmanned Systems and Technologies.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation did not comment on the leak.
Russia actively uses foreign components in the production of its weapons. Thus, according to the British Royal United Defense Studies Institute (RUSI), the Orlan-10 multi-purpose drone used a motor from Japan, a control system based on a microcontroller from Switzerland, and a camera gimbal with equipment from the United States. Participants in the 2022 investigation discovered that the manufacturer of these drones purchases foreign components through intermediary companies in the United States, China and Russia.
In the production of Shahed attack drones in Tatarstan, 126 components are used that are produced in other countries, mainly in the USA, and only four are produced in Russia, the Washington Post found out in 2023.