Serbian manufacturer Grindex supplied Russia with with €27.5 million in machine tools, with some reaching defense plants, RFE/RL reports

Serbian manufacturer Grindex supplied Russia with €27.5 million worth of machine tools between 2022 and 2025, with some ending up at sanctioned defense plants, according to a joint investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Balkan Service and investigative projects Schemes (Skhemy) and Sistema. Intermediary Alfa Machinery Group (AMG) facilitated the imports, which were made despite US and EU sanctions on AMG.

Ukrainian military intelligence revealed that Grindex signed a contract with AMG in 2022 to deliver a cylindrical grinding machine worth around €778,000 to Rostec company I. Rumyantsev Machine-Building Production Association, which manufactures aircraft components. Another machine, valued at just over $384,000, was delivered to Ufa Aggregate Enterprise Hydraulics, another Rostec company under EU sanctions since 2025.

In 2024, a Grindex machine was transferred to KBM, a Rostec subsidiary involved in developing the Iskander-M missile system, which is under US and EU sanctions. In 2025, a machine was being leased by the Perm Research and Production Instrument-Making Company, specializing in aircraft navigation, control, and stabilization systems.

Shipments occurred through other intermediaries like Finval Energo and Unimatic MSK, but investigators could not identify the final recipients. Grindex, based in Serbia, manufactures metalworking equipment including CNC and cylindrical grinding machines. The company was profitable in 2023 after operating at a loss in 2021 and 2022.

Serbia's Trade Ministry stated it had not issued Grindex export licenses for dual-use goods but could not verify if the machine tools were subject to export controls.