Merchants of death
Authors
During the Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azerbaijan used Belarusian weapons against the Armenian side. In the course of fierce combat, anti-aircraft missile systems successfully destroyed the drones. This is evidenced by exclusive documents available to Buro.
These documents also demonstrate the establishment of military cooperation between post-Soviet countries. Arms manufactured in Belarus were supplied to Azerbaijan via an offshore company controlled by influential businessmen. Such a scheme is likely to increase corruption risks, according to experts.
We have obtained more than 200 gigabytes of emails from the Belarus-based arms manufacturer Tetraedr. The files were distributed by the hacktivist groups Anonymous Liberland and the Pwn-Bär Hack Team. Buro and its partners investigated the leak and discovered details of secret agreements between Azerbaijan and Belarus in the run-up to the Second Karabakh War.
The mass media have already reported on the delivery of Belarusian weapons to the conflict zone, but the documents we have received reveal the nature of these weapons and how they were used in the war.
MISSILES SHOOTING DRONES
Tetraedr, a company based in Minsk, is the pride of the Belarusian defence industry. This non-state enterprise primarily focuses on modernising outdated military equipment. Private defense enterprises are rare in Belarus. They are typically founded by former public sector employees who utilise their established connections in military and industrial circles. Andrei Vakhouski, the founder and permanent owner of Tetraedr, comes from a background in military science.
October 2017, Andrei Vakhouski (on the right) welcomes Azerbaijani Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov (on the left) at Tetraedr. Source: mod.gov.az
The improved S-125-2TM Pechora-2TM air defence missile system is one of the projects that his company has completed. After improvements, this ADMS is considered effective against low-flying and small targets, such as combat drones. An e-mail from the Belarusian enterprise to one of its potential clients states that the Pechora-2TM is in service with countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.
Leaked documents have revealed that, on the eve of the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020, the Minsk-based Tetraedr enterprise was actively helping the Azerbaijani army to modernise its air defence system.
December 2019, the S-125-2TM Pechora-2TM ADSM during live-fire exercises in Azerbaijan. Source: mod.gov.az
We found a reference to at least 16 contracts that Tetraedr signed with Azerbaijani partners between 2006 and 2020 in the leak. Notably, in 2017, the Minsk-based company simultaneously signed two contracts for the repair, maintenance and support of Pechora-2TM air defence missile systems, totalling over $12 million.
The successful deal was concluded shortly after the visit to Minsk by the Azerbaijani Defence Minister at the time, Zakir Hasanov. He explored the Tetraedr enterprise and was impressed by the quality of Belarusian weapons.
“The Armed Forces of Azerbaijan use weapons and equipment produced in Belarus, and I state with full responsibility that this is high-quality weaponry and military equipment. We are going to deepen our cooperation, particularly in the military sphere”, Hasanov said at the time.
The S-125-2TM Pechora-2TM air defence missile systems first took part in exercises on the eve of the Second Karabakh War and were then “actively used” during the fighting. In a draft report for 2020, Tetraedr revealed more details.
“The combat crews of the S-125-2TM air defense system carried out up to 12 daily transitions of the system from combat position to marching position and back, relocated it to new launch sites, and performed combat operations. As a result of the combat operations, they destroyed 11 enemy UAVs”, the document said.
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan reported that 22 Armenian drones were destroyed during the Second Karabakh War.
December 2019, the S-125-2TM Pechora-2TM ADSM during live-fire exercises in Azerbaijan. Source: mod.gov.az
Citing state secrets, the Armenian Defence Ministry declined to comment on reports of the loss of 11 drones. The agency also failed to provide information on how many S-125-2TMs Armenia has hit during the recent Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Tetraedr and Andrei Vakhouski did not respond to our inquiry.
SECRET MIDDLEMEN
Tetraedr conducted business with the Azerbaijani military in secret. Buro and its partners discovered that Belarusian weapons were sold via an intermediary based in the British Virgin Islands. The company is called N.P.O. Navigation Systems.
According to a joint report by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, Conflict Armament Research and the Stimson Centre, intermediaries are not uncommon in the international arms trade and do not necessarily break the law. However, when offshore companies are involved in such transactions, it allows information about the actual beneficiaries to be hidden.
“Such concealment can mask the name and nationality of the true owners, or the country of origin or transshipment of the weapons”, stressed Colby Goodman, a senior researcher at Transparency International, an international non-governmental organisation that investigates corruption in the defence sector, in a commentary for Hetq.
Of all the tax havens, the British Virgin Islands is the most secretive, withholding information about the financial performance and ownership of companies. Thanks to the massive Pandora Papers offshore leak, however, we have been able to discover who is behind the N.P.O. Navigation Systems.
During the cooperation with Tetraedr, the offshore company was owned by two Azerbaijanis – Fuad Seidaliyev and Arif Ragimov. They own the Savalan Aspi Winery and are both listed as top managers at Aspi Consulting Engineers. The latter was involved in the privatisation of state property in Azerbaijan. Among other things, it provided advice to the local Ministry of Economic Development on the sale of small hydroelectric power plants.
The arms trade is another essential occupation for these businessmen. In the Tetradr leak, Seyidaliyev and Ragimov are revealed to be senior managers at the Azerbaijani company Azairtechservice. It is now called Esis Technologies. The company is not new to the military industry.
In 2011, Azairtechservice established a joint venture with the Belarusian company Tetraedr to modernise obsolete surface-to-air missile systems. Three years later, a joint venture was established with the South African company Paramount Group for the modernisation of combat helicopters. In 2016, the Azerbaijani company began cooperation with Havelsan, a Turkish defence company specialising in control, simulation, security and intelligence systems, in the defence sector. The online community has dubbed Azairtechservice “the second ministry of the defence industry”.
Andrei Vakhouski (first on the right) and Fuad Seyidaliyev (second on the left) in Azerbaijan, 2009
We asked the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence why they chose N.P.O. Navigation Systems as an intermediary when concluding deals with the Belarusian company Tetraedr, and how much commission the offshore company received for its work. However, we did not receive a response.
Seidaliyev claimed over the phone that he had no connection to N.P.O. Navigation Systems. However, documents from the Pandora Papers leak suggest otherwise.
His partner Ragimov did not respond to our inquiry.
Earlier, Hetq revealed that the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence had purchased weapons directly from state-owned Belarusian enterprises. For example, in 2022, the Belarusian state-owned enterprise Belspetsvneshtekhnika supplied the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence with two Groza-S counter-UAV mobile electronic warfare stations worth $9.7 million.
Experts see corruption risks in arms deals involving offshore companies.
“The use of a company registered in the British Virgin Islands by Azerbaijani brokers increases the risk of attempts to hide the financial and political origins of transactions, including those involving questionable commissions and kickbacks”, said Colby Goodman of Transparency International Defence and Security.
He believes that these risks are exacerbated by the weak regulation of companies in the British Virgin Islands and the extremely low protection of Azerbaijan’s defence sector from corruption.
“The greater the secrecy and opacity in the arms trade, the greater the opportunities for corrupt officials to line their pockets”, added Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at SIPRI, in a commentary for Buro.
FOUL PLAY
Military cooperation between Belarus and Azerbaijan is not something that is hidden at a high level. Ilham Aliyev personally inspected the Polonez multiple rocket launchers, which have been adopted for service.
“The products are of the highest quality, and the efficiency is unparalleled. Therefore, it is no coincidence that our countries already have a long history of successful military-technical cooperation, substantial trade volumes, and a positive trend towards expansion”, Aliyev said during his visit to Aleksandr Lukashenko in 2018.
November 2018, Ilham Aliyev on a visit to Minsk. Source: president.gov.by
The delivery of Belarusian arms to Baku has long been a source of tension between Yerevan and Minsk. Both Belarus and Armenia are allies within the military bloc known as the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). Azerbaijan is not part of this treaty. Fearing military aggression from Baku, Yerevan considered the supply of Belarusian arms to its adversary unacceptable.
As a result of military action in 2023, Azerbaijan gained complete control of Nagorno-Karabakh. Some 115,000 Armenians fled the region. Lukashenko described the Second Karabakh War as a “liberating” victory for Azerbaijan, stating that he and Aliyev had always believed in success. In turn, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has made it clear that he will never set foot in Belarus again as long as Aleksandr Lukashenko remains in power.