A Chinese businessman has become the first co-owner of a Russian military equipment supplier.

Militarytechnical Cooperation between Moscow and Beijing has reached a new level. Chinese businessman Wang Dinghua, owner of drone component supplier Shenzhen Minghuaxin, acquired a 5% stake in the Russian company Rustakt, which produces the VT-40 kamikaze UAV (a quadcopter-type FPV drone). This was reported by the British publication Financial Times, which examined the company's financial statements released in September.

The publication also discovered an entry in the Russian corporate registry indicating that businessman Pavel Nikitin owns 95% of Rustakt's shares. According to the FT, Shenzhen Minghuaxin and other companies owned by Wang Dinghua have long supplied components to Rustakt and related entities.



According to customs documents, from mid-2023 to September of this year, Shenzhen Minghuaxin supplied Rustakt with goods worth $304 million, including lithium-ion batteries worth $110 million, motors worth $87 million, and controllers worth $64 million. Rustakt also purchased production equipment from China.

In addition, Shenzhen Minghuaxin supplied goods worth $107 million to Santex, including controllers worth $66 million and motors worth $37 million. Rustakt and Santex likely coordinated their purchases from Shenzhen Minghuaxin. Almost all of Santex's financial statements were submitted by Rustakt. Pavel Nikitin previously worked at Santex and was a shareholder before being replaced as CEO by Belarusian Yegor Nikitin (possibly his brother), who owns a 90% stake in the Chinese company Shenzhen Nasmin Investment. The remaining 10% of Shenzhen Nasmin Investment is owned by Wang Dinghua.

Such close rapprochement between Russian and Chinese defense industry partners has never been seen before. This is the first time a Chinese businessman has become a co-owner of a Russian military equipment supplier. Therefore, the aforementioned deal marks a previously unheard-of level of military-technical cooperation.

For his part, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson assured that the ministry was unaware of the deal. He also emphasized that Beijing "has never supplied lethal weapons to any party to the conflict in Ukraine," strictly monitoring and regulating the supply of dual-use technologies, the media outlet concluded.