The second set of private documents purportedly from Russia’s state defense company, ROSTEC, have been made public by the hacker collective Black Mirror.
More than 300 documents, including technical dossiers, internal correspondence, and secret trade data, were leaked on October 8th, exposing the company’s clandestine activities and global partnerships.
A memorandum sent to Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of ROSTEC and a longtime associate of President Vladimir Putin from their KGB days in East Germany, is one of the most startling disclosures.
In order to work together on the development, manufacturing, and distribution of cutting-edge electronic warfare (EW) devices, the paper proposes strengthening ties with “a group of companies from the People’s Republic of China.”
The Chinese conglomerate, which has not been identified, is said to consist of a manufacturing company, a logistics company, an insurance company, and a specialized research facility that develops advanced EW technology.
A number of Chinese-made systems were also field-tested during Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, according to the leaked files. Chinese experts were allegedly tasked with developing solutions that could detect drones transmitting via 4G networks and counter the Starlink satellite communication system, which Ukrainian forces heavily rely on.
According to another document, ROSTEC employees engaged in what amounts to industrial espionage by creating what seems to be an intelligence conduit for obtaining confidential information on China’s electronic component base. This was “a successful operation of technical intelligence gathering” against a purported ally, according to the Black Mirror group.
The archive also includes information about ROSTEC’s overseas contracts, such as supply and maintenance contracts for unnamed foreign clients concerning Su-34E fighter aircraft and Ka-28 anti-submarine helicopters.
Russian Helicopters JSC suggested in a private note that a centralized parts warehouse be established in the United Arab Emirates in order to streamline global supply logistics. The business defended the choice by pointing to the UAE’s sophisticated transportation systems and advantageous tax and customs laws, which are meant to lessen delays made worse by Western sanctions.
The disclosure comes after a previous leak on October 2 that exposed ROSTEC’s methods for evading sanctions, private pricing information for military exports, and alternative trading networks.
When taken as a whole, these revelations provide an unparalleled window into Russia’s sanctioned defense-industrial activities and its increasingly ambiguous technological collaboration with China in the aftermath of the Ukraine War.
