The group of Russian companies “Kvalitet,” which fulfills state defense orders for the Russian Federation’s army and provides military equipment with specialized technical lubricants, continues to receive equipment and raw materials from global chemical manufacturers, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Tannas, BASF, and Lanxess. To organize these supplies, the company uses intermediaries in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Scope of Supply and the Role of “Kvalitet” in the Russian Defense Industry
Despite billion-dollar state contracts with sanctioned Russian defense factories, neither the import supply chain nor the company “Kvalitet” is included in the economic restrictions lists of the USA or the EU. It is known that information about defense procurement in Russia is classified; however, data regarding the financial operations of “Kvalitet” has been obtained from Russian tax databases. After the exit of Western competitors from the Russian market, the company has become almost a monopoly in the production of specialized lubricants for military aviation and heavy machinery.
In the past two years, the enterprises “NVP Kvalitet” and “Kvalitet-Avia” have made 487 deliveries to various companies in the Russian military-industrial complex, amounting to about one billion rubles, which is equivalent to over 12 million US dollars. Among the clients are leading manufacturers of weapons and military equipment: “Kurganmashzavod,” “Uralvagonzavod,” “Kazan Helicopter Plant,” and “Votkinsk Plant,” which produce combat vehicles, tanks, and ballistic systems. Experts emphasize that without specialized lubricants from “Kvalitet,” military equipment would quickly fail due to intense wear and overheating.
Sanction Evasion Schemes and Market Participants’ Reactions
The production of “Kvalitet” products is critically dependent on imported components, the import of which to Russia is prohibited by decisions of Western governments. However, as journalists have established, the company continues to import sanctioned additives and laboratory equipment from the USA and Germany, specifically from Chevron, ExxonMobil, Tannas, BASF, and Lanxess. An analysis of customs declarations using the ImportGenius system showed that imports are organized through Dubai’s IPU Trading and Turkey’s Özçinarlar, and over the past three years, the volume of such supplies has exceeded 650 million rubles (about 8.5 million US dollars).
“Without the special technical lubricants with unique additives from ‘Kvalitet,’ the engines and other mechanisms of this Russian military equipment would quickly fail due to wear and overheating, say experts interviewed by journalists.”
Experts on sanctions policy consider such operations classic examples of “re-export schemes,” which may put intermediaries from Turkey and the UAE under international sanctions. At the same time, the intermediary companies did not respond to journalists’ requests for comments. Of the mentioned Western manufacturers, only the American Tannas responded at the time of publication, stating that it had not granted permission for the supply of products to Russia, is already conducting an internal investigation, and plans to implement additional mechanisms for verifying end consumers.
Despite the fact that all major Russian defense factories working with “Kvalitet” products are already under Western sanctions, the group of companies itself has not yet been included in the sanctions lists of the USA or the EU. Only Ukraine imposed restrictions in 2025 against one of the key enterprises of the group – “NVP Kvalitet.”