Russia puts up memorial to GRU officer holding an Austrian rifle — the type used by its snipers in Ukraine despite sanctions

Russia’s Defense Ministry began official purchases of Austrian sniper rifles in 2011 in order to replace outdated Soviet SVD rifles (also known as the Dragunov sniper rifle) that had been developed back in the 1960s. In September 2013, the state defense corporation Rostec signed a joint-production agreement with Steyr Mannlicher in order to begin the manufacture of small arms at a facility in the city of Izhevsk. Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 prevented the joint venture from coming to fruition, but Austrian export deliveries to Russia continued.

In 2010, Steyr Mannlicher Holding GmbH had established a Russian subsidiary, Steyr Mannlicher LLC (ООО «Штайр Маннлихер»), with 75% of its capital owned by the Austrian holding company and 25% by entrepreneur Dmitry Startsev. The joint venture was liquidated in 2014. However, a second firm belonging to Startsev, Arsenal Weapons Salon LLC (ООО «Оружейный Салон „Арсенал“»), continued to receive Austrian weapons. Deliveries were not halted even after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine: from February 2022 through February 2024, Arsenal received import documents for 63 Steyr-made rifles. Aside from Arsenal, Steyr weapons were also imported by Hunter-Ru LLC (ООО «Хантер-Ру») and Test-Oruzhie LLC (ООО «Тест-Оружие»), the latter of which is linked to entities associated with the arms baron Mikhail Khubutia.

The Insider previously reported that it had used open-source data to confirm that Austrian rifles are used by sniper units in at least five Russian Defense Ministry brigades: the 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade of the Pacific Fleet, the 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade (which stormed Hostomel Airport near Kyiv in February 2022), the 14th Separate Special Forces Brigade of the GRU Spetsnaz, the 3rd Guards Separate Brigade of the GRU Spetsnaz, and the 37th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.