Bypassing sanctions, Russia received 110,000 Swiss sniper rounds. According to documents, they were transported for hunters in Kyrgyzstan

As reported by The Insider, citing an investigation by the Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at least two large shipments of Swiss-made high-precision sniper cartridges were imported into Russia. Journalists found documents in the Rosakkreditatsiya registry for 60,000 cartridges registered on December 30, 2022, and another 50,000 units processed on April 5, 2023.

In both cases, the ammunition manufacturer was listed as Ruag Ammotec AG from the Swiss town of Thun. Until the summer of 2022, this factory belonged to the Swiss state-owned defense conglomerate Ruag, after which the enterprise was acquired by the Italian arms holding Beretta. Today, the factory operates under the SwissP Defence banner and markets the cartridges found in Russia under the slogan "The Sniper's Choice".

Upon import, Russian importers declared the products as civilian. However, Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) — the agency responsible for export control and sanctions enforcement — officially confirmed to journalists that the calibers specified in the Russian declarations are classified as military-grade goods and are used primarily by snipers.

Transit through Slovenia

According to documents, the cartridges were initially exported completely legally from Switzerland to Slovenia with SECO's authorization. The buyer was Slovenian arms dealer Gašper Heybal, who provided written assurances to the Swiss side that the ammunition would remain on Slovenian territory.

However, records from the Slovenian Ministry of Defense indicate that the businessman resold the Swiss cartridges to two Kyrgyz firms specializing in the trade of hunting supplies. Because Kyrgyzstan is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union alongside Russia and Belarus, the cargo's subsequent transit to the Russian Federation proceeded without customs control. The ultimate recipients in Russia were two companies that had previously featured in schemes for the illegal importation of Western sniper rifles.

Gašper Heybal himself had already been the subject of an investigation by Politico in 2023: it was revealed at the time that his firm Valerian had supplied Russia with hundreds of thousands of rounds for Orsis rifles, and Wagner PMC mercenaries used American sniper ammunition in Ukraine. Following new publications, Swiss authorities blocked shipments to the Slovenian company through which Heybal operated, and he himself resigned from it.

The fact that the Swiss ammunition ended up with the Russian army rather than hunters was confirmed by the Russian pro-war Telegram channel "Bolshoy Panda". Back on October 7, 2024, the channel's author posted a photo of a box of SWISS P Target .308 Winchester cartridges and reported that they had been issued to soldiers by the rocket and artillery armament service. The blogger later edited the post to claim that these rounds had been delivered to Russian stores prior to 2014, but offered no proof to support this.

Referendum on arms

This is not the first time Ruag Ammotec products have been uncovered in Russia. In October 2025, The Insider, jointly with the Canadian outlet Global News, found that the same Swiss cartridges, alongside Canadian Cadex sniper rifles, were imported by the Moscow-based firearms company "Varyag". Over the first two years of the full-scale war, it imported 501 firearms and 141,000 rounds of ammunition of various Western brands.

Furthermore, the Swiss plant's new owner — the Italian holding company Beretta — has retained a direct presence in the Russian market through the joint venture "Russky Oryol", where businessman Mikhail Khubutia acts as a partner. The "Okhotnik" group of companies connected to him imported hundreds of thousands of cartridges from Beretta's European plants after the outbreak of the war, including Ruag Ammotec facilities in Germany, Sweden, and Hungary. To conceal these trade flows, in September 2026 Rosakkreditatsiya halted the publication of declarations under the relevant customs codes.

The new investigation in the Swiss press appeared at a sensitive political moment — two weeks ahead of the national referendum scheduled for November 29, 2026. In it, Swiss citizens are to vote on the issue of relaxing arms export regulations. Opponents of the reform cite the sniper cartridge story as proof that simplified re-export rules to third countries will inevitably lead to a loss of control over whose hands Swiss weapons end up in.

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