Ministry of Justice is using safes made by Russian owner with ties to the Kremlin
The Ministry of Justice and Security was not aware that they are using safes made in a factory owned by a Russian owner with close ties to the Kremlin. They denied knowledge of this when asked by Omroep Gelderland saying that they will now investigate whether any sanction rules were broken due to this. Other ministries were also customers of this company.
The safes are made by Promet, a company that has factories in Russia and Bulgaria. It was ordered by the security firm Nauta Security Storage from Barneveld.
Nauta responded to the news by saying that they only bought safes that were made in the Bulgarian factories. But Omroep Gelderland obtained export letters that show that safes were also supplied by Russia until the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
When Omroep Gelderland showed Nauta the findings, they responded by saying that this was not an issue at the time. “We did not pay attention to this, partly because there were no sanctions in force at that time and Promet Russia was still a member of ECB-S. The certified safes, therefore, had a European certificate.”
The owner of the factories is Evgeniy Petrov, who has close ties with confidants of Russian president Vladimir Putin. This was reported by the investigative journalist Sergey Ezhov in a recently published article in The Insider.
GroenLinks-PvdA member of parliament Esmah Lahlah was critical of the government upon hearing the news. “The news that the government has bought safes from a company with ties to the Kremlin is unacceptable. While sanctions may not have been violated, this shows a serious lack of due diligence and moral compass. At a time when Russia is at war, there should be no economic ties to companies that could potentially contribute to Putin's regime."
