German Engineering for Russia’s Army: Machinery Maker PRIMINER’s Sanctions-Dodging Supply Line Exposed

Priminer Machine Tools, as presented on its official website, identifies itself as a professional manufacturer of computer-numerically controlled machine tools, established by a joint Chinese-German enterprise. According to the company’s official statements, PRIMINER has a global technical team, and its products are currently sold in more than 30 countries.

CNC machines enable the rapid production of high-precision metal and other hard material components, which are essential for the manufacture of the vast majority of defense products. Earlier, UNITED24 Media identified dozens of such machines at Russian military-industrial plants.

Despite publicly declaring its global business presence, Russia remained such an important client for PRIMINER that neither EU and US sanctions on dual-use goods nor targeted sanctions by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) against its Russian subsidiary persuaded the group to halt cooperation with Russia.

Both ordinary industrial enterprises in Russia and Belarus, as well as numerous leading military-industrial plants—already under sanctions for years—received PRIMINER’s products. Documents reveal hundreds of units supplied, including CNC systems from Siemens and Fanuc—systems whose official manufacturers restrict shipments to Russia.

Inside PRIMINER’s international operations

PRIMINER’s “strategic headquarters” in Germany is located in Neumünster, about 40 minutes from Hamburg. The company was founded in 2017 by Mr. Feiyue Chen, who is still listed as managing director, according to the German portal northdata.com.

Alongside him, the German co-director is Benjamin K. Kaehlcke, with Oliver Delfs acting as an authorized representative empowered to sign documents on behalf of the company, although he does not hold a share in it.

Open sources also identify Feiyue Chen as the general director of production in China, as well as the owner of the company’s Serbian branch, where Benjamin K. Kaehlcke is likewise his business partner.

Both social media accounts and the company website feature photos of Feiyue Chen and Benjamin K. Kaehlcke together, clearly indicating their close collaboration.

Priminer’s manufacturing plant in China is located in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. “European engineers, dispatched from the German headquarters, are permanently stationed at the Chinese factory, responsible for production processes and quality control,” the company claims on its official website.

The same website states that 70% of the machining centers manufactured in China are exported back to Europe. Although the company no longer lists its Russian entity online, for many years, LLC “PRIMINER RUSSLAND” actively conducted business in Russia and even Belarus. Through this entity, machinery from the Chinese factory was systematically supplied to Russian and Belarusian plants.

A standard company template document obtained by UNITED24 Media identifies the Russian subsidiary as the “Official PRIMINER Representative Office in Russia,” with an address in Odintsovo, the Moscow region. The company used the group’s shared domain and brand design.

The content of the document is particularly noteworthy: it is a reference list of deliveries issued by the Russian representative office. It includes the item descriptions, delivery dates, and end recipients of China-manufactured equipment.

Deliveries to Russian military plants

The document covers the period from August 2021 to June 2024 (including planned shipments) and records over 100 transactions involving high-precision Priminer machining centers (models V9L, V11L, V13L, V15L, VF900–1500, C500, U400, U500) equipped with Siemens 828D or Fanuc 0i-MF Plus CNC systems.

These shipments included direct deliveries to key enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex, among them:

• AO “UZGA” (Yekaterinburg) — a Russian aircraft manufacturer and repair plant, also involved in the assembly and development of Forpost/Forpost-R and Altius UAVs for the Russian Defense Ministry;

• AO “NPO Kurganpribor” (Kurgan) — a sanctioned producer of detonators and fuses for tank rounds, artillery shells, MLRS, air-defense systems, and aviation missiles;

• AO “ENIKS” (Kazan) — a manufacturer of strike and reconnaissance UAVs used by Russian forces;

• FKP “NPO KZTM” (Kazan) — a defense enterprise within Russia’s military-industrial base specializing in components and special products for missile and artillery systems;

• AO NPP “Salyut” (Nizhny Novgorod) — a military-industry producer of electronic and radio-frequency components for military systems (including air-defense and electronic-warfare equipment);

• AO “Barnaultransmash” (Barnaul) — part of the “High-Precision Systems” holding, specializing in diesel engines for infantry fighting vehicles and other armored equipment.

Because Priminer did not provide an official comment to UNITED24 Media, the editorial team analyzed customs records, which confirmed repeated shipments of Priminer equipment to Russia.

Data shows that deliveries originated from the Chinese manufacturer—Priminer Machine Tools Dongguan Co., Ltd—while the Russian recipient listed was the subsidiary LLC “Priminer Russland.”

All shipments were classified under customs code 8457109008 (“metalworking machines with numerical control”), meaning they constitute dual-use goods. Records confirm that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine did not interrupt cooperation. On the contrary, business volume increased in parallel with Russia’s expanded funding for its military-industrial complex.

The Russian subsidiary systematically received high-precision equipment capable of producing components for armored vehicles, guidance systems, rocket engines, and more. The reference list includes Priminer models—V9L, V11L, V13L, V15L, VF900–1500, U400, U500, C500-5X—which match those found in customs data from 2023–2024 we analyzed.

In other words, the nomenclature is identical: the same model lines appearing in customs data later show up in delivery lists to defense plants. This means that the equipment listed in the reference document indeed underwent customs clearance in 2023–2024 and can be identified by its Priminer model names and serial numbers.

Sanctions fail to halt PRIMINER-linked shipments

These shipments did not go unnoticed. The company’s Russian subsidiary was added to OFAC’s sanctions list on February 23, 2024. However, this occurred only after years of systematic deliveries to Russian military facilities.

At the same time, available customs data indicate that even after OFAC sanctions, the company continued its business operations with Russia.

Transactions recorded between March 12 and December 11, 2024, in customs databases indicate that although shipments from Priminer’s Chinese factory decreased significantly after sanctions were imposed on the Russian subsidiary, they did not stop entirely. Notably, the legal entities conducting cross-border operations changed.

After March 12, the sanctioned LLC “PRIMINER RUSSLAND” no longer appears as a counterparty. New recipients of Chinese-manufactured Priminer equipment were listed as LLC “OLIMPIYA” and LLC “SOVREMENNYE TEKHNOLOGII.”

LLC “SOVREMENNYE TEKHNOLOGII” imports similar dual-use products—CNC machines from another Chinese manufacturer, SHENZHEN LUCKWELL MECHATRONIC CO. LTD, according to publicly available data from Tradeindata.

Based on the same database, after sanctions hit LLC “PRIMINER RUSSLAND,” LLC “SOVREMENNYE TEKHNOLOGII” completed two more import transactions—on April 13 and April 24—delivering Priminer equipment from China.

Afterwards, the importer abruptly switched to procuring machinery from SHENZHEN LUCKWELL MECHATRONIC CO. LTD, bringing in similar equipment rebranded as EVOLUTION.

The EVOLUTION-branded machines from SHENZHEN LUCKWELL MECHATRONIC CO. LTD look almost identical to those produced at Priminer’s Chinese plant, differing only in paint color and name.

Evolution of PRIMINER

Aside from Priminer, another major importer of CNC machines to Russia was LLC “PUMORI ENGINEERING INVEST.” The company would not normally have been central to this investigation, had we not obtained a letter it sent to one of Russia’s key military-industrial enterprises—AO “TsNII Burevestnik.”

Behind this long abbreviation is an enterprise within the Uralvagonzavod corporation (part of the state corporation Rostec), specializing in the development and testing of barrel artillery, self-propelled artillery systems, and related components for the Russian Armed Forces.

Its product profile and deep ties to Russia’s military-industrial complex have made the institute subject to international sanctions and export restrictions—and, like other Russian arms enterprises, it requires high-quality CNC machinery.

In a letter dated October 2024, LLC “Pumori Engineering Invest” informed AO “TsNII Burevestnik” of its inability to fulfill obligations due to the inclusion of both itself and Priminer Russland in the US sanctions list.

The text explicitly states that “as a result, the manufacturer refused to supply the equipment…,” after which the parties “changed the equipment name to EVOLUTION EVO-7 (Supplementary Agreement No. 1 to Contract No. 2419/2023)” and developed a new payment scheme.

A January 2025 letter also obtained by UNITED24 Media states that “all equipment has been delivered to the AO TsNII ‘Burevestnik’ facility,” while emphasizing that LLC “Pumori Engineering Invest” acted as a dealer for LLC “Priminer Russland,” which had likewise been added to the sanctions list.

Thus, it can be inferred that Russia’s military-industrial complex continued to receive the same machines, with only the name changed from EVO-7 to EVOLUTION EVO-7. Instead of establishing its own representative office, the company continued to supply products through a dealer under a different brand.

The combined evidence indicates that the PRIMINER Group had been involved in equipment deliveries to enterprises in Russia and Belarus for years. However, only its nominal Odintsovo-based subsidiary received relatively insignificant punishment, while its products continued to enter the Russian market.

Penalizing minor regional front companies rather than imposing significant sanctions on the actual manufacturers and beneficiaries of these schemes only emboldens businesses that disregard sanctions and actively seek ways to circumvent them.

UNITED24 Media reached out to the PRIMINER group for comment and clarification, but did not receive substantive answers. The company stated it did not wish the contents of its correspondence with the newsroom to be published.

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