Russians in Germany pretend they are German to acquire military technology and then launder it through Turkey.

According to the investigative file produced by the German prosecutor’s office, Nikita S. stood at the center of a system that began as a conventional trading business and, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, became what investigators suspect was a European procurement arm for Moscow.

On paper, the operation revolved around Global Trade, a mid-sized trading company based in Lübeck. Before the war, the company exported directly to Russia. But after Western sanctions tightened, the files show, its business model changed. Direct shipments were replaced by a more elaborate structure designed to disguise the Russian end users.

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The scale was recorded in the network’s own documents. A spreadsheet titled “Nikita’s order list” tracked thousands of transactions from request to delivery, listing order numbers, products, prices and delivery status. Prosecutors believe the operation moved roughly 16,000 shipments worth more than €30 million, Ines Peterson, spokesperson for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, told BILD.

Seawater desalination technology is said to fit Russian nuclear submarines, for example. What else?