UK sanctions Dutch businessman exposed by Kyiv Independent for shipping EU machinery to Russian missile suppliers

The U.K. has sanctioned Alexander Tattersall, a Dutch national, and Redwing Metal, the Turkish company he co-owns, nearly four months after a Kyiv Independent investigation revealed the firm had funneled EU-made industrial machinery to Russian metallurgical plants that supply the country's missile and fighter jet manufacturers.

Tattersall and Redwing Metal were blacklisted as part of a package of 38 designations announced by the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on Oct. 8, targeting Russian oil companies, shadow fleet tankers, crypto exchanges, and suppliers of goods critical to Russia's military.

In its announcement, the U.K. government said the package included a European national designated over his association with a third-country entity exporting machine tools to Russia, adding that such trade gives Moscow "material benefits on the battlefield."

U.K. sanctions freeze any assets the designated individuals and companies hold under British jurisdiction and bar British citizens and businesses from dealing with them.

They may also have wider effects, according to Roman Steblivskyi, director of policy and advocacy at the Economic Security Council of Ukraine (ESCU). The designation means that the supply chain through Redwing Metal to Russia has most likely been closed, he told the Kyiv Independent.

Although the EU has yet to sanction Redwing Metal or Tattersall, Steblivskyi said the U.K. sanctions would effectively cut Redwing Metal off from European partners as well.

"I do not think that EU companies or banks would approve transactions with Redwing Metal after the U.K. sanctions were imposed. It is too risky," he said.

The same may apply to Redwing Metal's Turkish counterparts, Steblivskyi added. "This company is sanctioned, so it is already a red flag at least."

The Russian beneficiaries of the supply chain, however, remain partially outside the scope of Western sanctions.

What the investigation revealed

The Kyiv Independent's investigation, published in collaboration with Italy's IrpiMedia and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), revealed the role of a Turkish company co-owned by Alexander Tattersall in supplying machinery to the Russian defense industry.

Russian customs records showed that Redwing Metal, set up in Turkey shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, shipped $5 million worth of European equipment in 2023 and 2024 to two Russian metallurgical plants: Aluminum Metallurg Rus (AMR) and Stupino Metallurgical Company (SMK).

The shipments included CNC lathes, metal heat-treatment furnaces, hydraulic presses, and other machinery produced by Italian, German, Spanish, and Czech manufacturers — equipment that EU export controls bar from being sold to Russia.

Both plants are controlled by Russian businessman Nikolay Timokhin, the son-in-law of Igor Zavyalov, who has served as deputy head of Russia's state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec since 2007.

The plants use such equipment to produce metal alloys for Russia's defense industry. An analysis of financial documents by the Kyiv Independent showed that AMR and SMK have supplied more than 40 Russian defense manufacturers since the start of the full-scale war, including producers of Kh-101 and Kh-59 missiles, missiles for S-300 and S-400 air defense systems, and fighter jets. Many of these companies are part of Rostec.

Customs data also showed Redwing Metal shipped a further $1.3 million worth of EU-made shipbuilding equipment — including anchors, mooring winches, and ventilation fans — to another company in Timokhin's group, SMS (formerly SMK-Snab), for installation on two Russian Navy ships under construction.

According to Turkish corporate records, Tattersall, who resides in Switzerland, owns 40% of Redwing Metal. The remaining stake is held by a local lawyer, Veysel Cengiz Soylemezoglu.

Tattersall's ties to Timokhin's business predate the full-scale war. For years, he ran a network of AMR trading companies in Switzerland, Germany, and the U.S. that sold AMR's aluminum products on Western markets. In 2019, he was photographed inside the AMR plant in Russia at celebrations marking the factory's 65th anniversary.

When approached by the Kyiv Independent ahead of the investigation's release, Tattersall confirmed he co-owned Redwing Metal but described himself as a part-time consultant with limited knowledge of its operations. He said that, to his knowledge, the company had never been involved in any "schemes" to ship sanctioned goods to Russia.

Soylemezoglu declined to comment on the shipments at the time, citing privacy obligations. Timokhin, AMR, and SMK did not respond to requests for comment.

Timokhin still out of reach

On July 23, the EU sanctioned AMR, one of the two Russian metallurgical plants that received prohibited EU-made machinery through the Turkish company Redwing Metal.

But the second plant, SMK, and the company that received the shipbuilding equipment, SMS, have not been sanctioned by the EU. Neither has Timokhin, whose business group includes all three companies.

Redwing Metal and Tattersall are also absent from the EU sanctions list.

Sanctions experts interviewed for the investigation said that routing banned EU-made equipment to Russia through Turkey amounts to circumvention of EU sanctions.

EU nationals found to have knowingly helped bypass export restrictions through a third-country intermediary could face both financial penalties and criminal charges under national law, they said.