London | Financial Times
Bread isn't the only thing fresh off the production line at the Tambov Bread Factory in Russia. And the authorities responsible for imposing Western sanctions are taking note.
Tambov bakers were placed on the U.S. red list in December for mounting small drones at facilities used by Russian troops in President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Their efforts made the bakery an example of the Kremlin's campaign to involve civilian industry in production for the front lines as war increasingly dominates the Russian economy.
In a state television report about the bakery, a factory boss showed half a dozen Bekas drones next to a selection of fresh bread. “They even smell like fresh bread!” said Russian journalist Alexander Rogatkin, who was holding one of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and sniffing it.
According to interviews with the bakery's managers in Russian state media, the Tambov factory began assembling the drones in February 2023 using a 3D printer that produces carbon structures as well as antenna and camera mounts.
Most components for the Bekas are purchased online, allowing bakers to keep costs between 25,000 rubles (R$3,600) and 50,000 rubles (R$7,200) per drone. According to the bakery, Tambov currently produces around 250 drones per month as well as camouflage backpacks.
Putin presented the increase in defense spending as a win for Russian industry that helped the country survive Western sanctions during the war.
“Factories in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East dozens of regions of our country are working at full capacity in several shifts,” Putin said at an event in November celebrating Rostec, Russia's leading defense company. Russia. “Under the current conditions, this gives an absolutely unique impetus to the development of hightech production areas not only in defense but also in related civil industries.”
According to a study published by the Bank of Finland's Institute for Emerging Markets, warrelated industrial production increased by 35% compared to the period before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while civilian production remained stable. In some industries, such as electrical appliances and automobile manufacturing, the warrelated increase in production was able to offset the decline in consumer goods production.
More than 500 light industry companies have shifted their focus to the production of military equipment, the Russian Trade Ministry said in February 2023. It also added that it expected they would produce four times more for the army this year than in 2022.
In Naberezhnye Chelny, a city in central western Russia on the banks of the Kama River, an ice hockey stick workshop began making bulletproof vests. A luxury tent company in Chelyabinsk, an industrial city in the Urals, is now producing sleeping bags and tents for the battlefield. In Voronezh, the agricultural heartland of southern Russia, a farm equipment factory produces everything from landmine clearing equipment to antidrone defense equipment.
Firstperson view (FPV) drones have become increasingly important to both sides in the war, leading to more than 100 volunteer missions focused on UAVs popping up across Russia.
Some of the new drone makers said they had received requests from Russian authorities to get involved in the conflict. The owners of the Tambov Bakery have close ties to the local government, while the baker in charge of the effort is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Russian Army.
“The Russian government has signaled its intention to subsidize drone production in the coming years. Chinesemade 3D printers appear to be selling for the ruble equivalent of a few dollars in Russia,” said Allen Maggard, Russian defense industry analyst at American Think Panzer C4ADS. “The combination of the low acquisition costs of 3D printers and the guarantee of government funding could make the transition to drone production irresistible for companies.”
However, some are amateur drone enthusiasts, apparently motivated by a sense of patriotic duty, sharing designs and specifications in groups on the social media app Telegram and crowdfunding to raise money for FPV drones.
“What we are witnessing is a glimpse of largescale voluntary efforts across Russian society,” says Samuel Bendett, an autonomous weapons expert at the US Center for Naval Analysis.
Due to the small size of Bekas drones, their combat potential is limited as they can only carry a payload of 3.5 kg for up to 5 km. This makes them more suitable for antihuman missions than the larger Lancet drones used to attack Ukrainian tanks and fortifications, or the Iranianmade Shaheds used to attack Kiev.
But the Bekas' ease of mass production the factory says it has made eight imitations significantly expands Russia's arsenal of kamikaze drones, Bendett says. “It all obviously fits together.”
Even simple, lowcost weapons like Bekas drones rely on foreignmade components, as does much of Russia's hightech military production, says Pavel Luzin, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington. “The only Russian thing there is is the Bekas sticker.”
The drones' simple design and specifications make their supply chain difficult to track: Russian customs records for the Tambov bakery and a related company that makes the drones provide no results. Chinese 3D printers are particularly difficult to track because their components are often shipped separately, Maggard says.
Since Russia's largescale invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago, 22,531 shipments of goods have been sent to Russia from three Chinese 3D printer companies. These companies are present in Russian FPV drone communities on Telegram, according to trade data compiled by C4ADS, including 659 shipments with the keyword 3D, Maggard adds.
While the imposition of U.S. sanctions will likely limit the number of foreign partners willing to supply components to the Tambov bakery, the low cost and scale of operations suggest the company appears confident the restrictions will have no impact.
After the decision, Valeri Liachtchenko, the bakery's main drone builder, was shown on state television filling a box with bread rings and cookies before sending them to the White House as a “thank you” to US President Joe Biden.
Iuri Tchitcherin, manager of the bakery, told the broadcaster that getting on the US sanctions list was a great success: “We are proud, we are happy. When else would someone talk about our factory like that on an international level?”