DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - Months after the war of aggression on Ukraine began, a subsidiary of defense contractor and automotive supplier Rheinmetall was still selling engine spare parts to Russia. The last deliveries were made in June 2022, Rheinmetall announced in Düsseldorf on Tuesday. The transactions were carried out within the framework of existing contracts and the provision of the goods was delayed until June because the official inspection and approval procedures were time-consuming and complex. The aim was to avoid contractual penalties by making the goods available.
The company in question is the spare parts dealer MS Motorservice, which is owned by Rheinmetall. Its portfolio includes pistons, oil pumps, water pumps and exhaust gas recirculation valves, and for a long time Russian workshops were also users. According to Rheinmetall, MS Motorservice sold the products to Russian wholesalers, among others, who arranged for them to be picked up and took care of importing them into the country.
In the spring of 2022, Rheinmetall's Executive Board had declared that it would discontinue its already small Russian business. According to the company's presentation, the provision of engine spare parts is not a contradiction to this decision. Previously, the "Business Insider" had reported.
Rheinmetall is one of the beneficiaries of the "turnaround" proclaimed by the German government after the start of the Ukraine war, as a result of which 100 billion euros are to be invested in the German armed forces. The Düsseldorf-based company's order books are full, and demand for artillery, tanks and ammunition is high, both from Germany and abroad. The company is not purely an arms manufacturer; rather, it also has a non-military division with components for cars and trucks./wdw/DP/nas
