Thread by @investigate_eu

1/ #Breaking Missiles, aircraft, bombs: EU states exported weapons to Russia until at least '20. 🇷🇺 bought arms from 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇮🇹 & others after the 2014 embargo. € 346 MLN worth of military equipment; some of it possibly used in #Ukraine right now. A thread. investigate-europe.eu/en/2022/eu-sta…

2/ Each year EU Member States are supposed to share their #ArmsExport numbers & policies with #COARM, a working party of @EUCouncil. According to its little known data, ten EU countries exported arms to #Russia in the years 2015-2020, @investigate_eu can report.

3/ This comes after the EU has agreed to stop exporting arms to Russia, following the illegal annexation of #Crimea and Russia-backed proclamation of indepedence by separatists republics in the #Donbass region. Here’s an excerpt of the @EUCouncil’s decision.

4/ 1/3 of the EU countries, however, used a legal loophole in the regulations to continue #ArmsTrade. Indeed, the embargo did not apply to contracts & agreements concluded before 1 Aug 2014. Responding to @investigate_eu, #COARM claims the #EU states "are not arming Russia."

5/ But the conclusion is not that simple.“Weapons are a part of our foreign policy, not of economic policy. Political reasons are the main thing.” #ArmsExport should not take place due to the economic reasons, told us Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher at @SIPRIorg.

6/ As first reported by @Disclose_ngo this Monday, France has sold € 152 mln worth of military equipment to Russia. A figure confirmed by our analysis, which places France far ahead of its neighbors, with 44% of European #arms sent to #Russia.
disclose.ngo/fr/article/ukr…

7/ The number of licenses (authorisations for arms deals) issued by France exploded right after the post #Crimea embargo came into force, in 2015.

8/ In 2014, the 🇫🇷 authorities were indeed still giving their authorisation to send to Russia "chemical","biological","riot control" agents & more. After 11 days after our inquiry, @Armees_Gouv told us France is committed "to apply very strictly" the 2014 embargo.

9/ According to the information we collected, #Germany exported €121.8 million worth of military equipment to Russia. This represents 35% of all EU arms exports to Russia. The German govt has not responded to our questions about this.

10/On the 3rd place among the top post #embargo #arms exporters: Italy. The country authorised selling €25 mln (delivered €22.5 mln) worth of military equipment to 🇷🇺 in '15-20. This image shows some of the 🇮🇹 parts made it to the frontline of #WarInUkraine, spotted by @La7tv

11/ To end this thread with an even more surprising fact: according to @SIPRIorg data on arms exports, it was not just the EU selling arms to Russia after the annexation of Crimea – Russia also remained the second biggest market for weapons exports from #Ukraine.

If you are interested more publications on the miliarisation of the EU: We are offering an english newsletter and publication alerts in 8 more languages. Check it out! investigate-europe.eu/en/newsletter/