How Do Russian Snipers Get American and European Sights
This is not a problem — tens of thousands of them are imported into Russia, supposedly “for installation on hunting weapons”
“Nazism must not exist on our land, and Nazism must be destroyed,” a sniper of the Española, volunteer military unit of football hooligans, says in a video by a Belarusian propaganda TV channel.
The fighter poses with a sniper rifle, mounted with a telescopic sight from Kahles, an Austrian company that makes products for hunting and sport shooting. Dozens of videos can be found on YouTube in which Russian fighters demonstrate sights from Western manufacturers — Leupold (USA), Nightforce — one, two, three, four (USA — Japan), Holosun (USA — China), Swarovski Optik (Austria).
According to customs data, 16B rubles (≈$180.5M) worth of rifle scopes were imported into Russia in 2022-2023. The purpose is “for installation on hunting weapons” and “not for military use.” But in fact, as seen on YouTube, at least part of it gets to the Ukrainian battlefront.
The leaders in sights’ imports are the online stores Pointer and Navigator. Pointer from St. Petersburg operates under the slogan “We have everything for successful hunting.” Since the beginning of the war, the company has imported almost 50 thousand sights of the American-Chinese manufacturer Holosun for more than 3B rubles (≈$33.8M). In total, goods for hunting and sports, many of which are also used at the front, were imported for the amount of 17B rubles (≈$191.8M).
“Hunting” goods from Pointer in 2022–2023 were bought, in particular, by arms companies. The manufacturer of Orsis rifles, Promtekhnologia, purchased products worth 55M rubles (≈$620.4K). Store named Hunt, which is owned by the makers of Bespoke Gun rifles, purchased products worth 33M rubles (≈$372.2K).
Navigator from Moscow has imported sights worth about 400M rubles (≈$4.5M), including more than 2 thousand Holosun sights, since the beginning of the war. In total, the store imported such goods worth 4.5B rubles (≈$50.8M).
Among Navigator clients is St. Petersburg-based Tekhnologiya, which has been linked to the deceased owner of Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin. It purchased optics, rangefinders, eyeglasses and other equipment worth 140M rubles (≈$1.58M).
The Moscow-based arms company, which produces Bespoke Gun rifles, purchased American Nightforce telescopic sights and other goods worth 12M rubles (≈$135.4K), and its associated hunting store Hunt — worth 19M rubles (≈$214.3K). A manufacturer of Lobaev Arms rifles, also bought goods from Navigator worth 21M rubles (≈$236.9K).
The traditional Soviet army Dragunov sniper rifle (SVD) is inferior to rifles made by Russian private arms companies — Lobaev Arms, Promtekhnologia (Orsis brand), Moscow Armory Company (Bespoke Gun brand). Therefore, snipers often prefer them. These rifles are not officially in service with the Russian army.
Lobaev Arms
The company was founded by Vladislav and Nikolay Lobaev, residents of the Kaluga Oblast. In the mid-1990s Vladislav Lobaev became interested in sport shooting and realized that Russia had no weapons with which he could win international competitions. In the 2000s he started developing and producing his own rifles. “The situation so happened that we found American master gunsmiths who agreed to transfer to us the technology and these very specific skills that allow us to make the most accurate weapons in the world,” Vladislav Lobaev told. In 2017, the Lobaev Arms Twilight rifle set one of the world records for range — 4210 meters. Since the beginning of the war, the company, according to its founder, has been selling rifles to the Russian army for half price.
Bespoke Gun (Moscow Armory Company)
The owners of the Moscow Armory Company started out by producing piece rifles for friends (costing more than 1M rubles, ≈$11.3K). Since the beginning of the war, they have, according to the company’s general director, “transferred technologies and developments to tactical solutions” and “shifted the emphasis from aesthetics to reliability.” At the expense of “not indifferent people,” the company has supplied Russian snipers with about 300 Bespoke Gun rifles. The company is 75% owned by Vladislav Kuzhel, a former partner of Artem Chaika, son of the presidential envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District.
Importation of sights and other goods “for hunting,” of course, goes through parallel imports — manufacturers, most likely, do not know where their goods end up. Pointer uses intermediaries in China, and Navigator — in Turkey and Kazakhstan.
Neither Pointer nor Navigator responded to an inquiry from IStories.