For more than a year after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, companies belonging to German businessman Juri Sudheimer continued to supply Russia with lubricating oils used at defense industry plants, The Insider found in collaboration with the Lithuanian investigative outlet Siena. Sudheimer has a long history of cooperation with Russian authorities: in 2016, he received marked cash from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) to hand over as a bribe to Nikita Belykh, who was then the governor of the Kirov Region. It was Siena that discovered the money Sudheimer gave to Belykh did not belong to him, but to the FSB.
More recently, according to customs data reviewed by The Insider and Siena, Sudheimer's companies supplied Russian partners with lubricants. Until 2023, the Lithuanian lubricant producer SCT Lubricants, based in Klaipeda, supplied its oils directly to Russia. The recipient was the Russian company JSC NLK in Kirov. Sudheimer was the beneficial owner of both SCT Lubricants and NLK.
Shipments appear to have continued even after direct sales were halted. In the first quarter of 2025, Russia imported 550 metric tons of lubricating oils produced by SCT Chemicals FZE, a UAE-based company operating under the Mannol/SCT Chemicals brand. In 2024, imports totaled 1,080 tons. The sender was the Dubai-based firm SCT Chemicals FZE, whose beneficiary is also Sudheimer. Another 370 tons of SCT products were imported in 2024 for Kirov-based JSC NLK by the Dubai firm Chempioil FZE, which is also linked to Sudheimer. Chempioil FZE was involved in oil shipments in 2023 as well, sending more than 300 tons of lubricants produced in Klaipeda to Russia. At the start of 2023, the shipments were sent directly; later, however, they began to arrive via Uzbekistan, with the UAE listed as the country of dispatch.
In 2026, SCT Chemicals FZE was placed under European sanctions, as its specialized lubricants are used for diesel engines produced by Russia’s Kolomna Plant, a supplier of military products. As The Insider previously reported, JSC Kolomensky Zavod (lit. “Kolomna Plant”) supplies the Russian Defense Ministry with diesel engines for warships. The plant was added to the EU sanctions list in December 2023.
In a conversation with a Siena journalist, Sudheimer confirmed that SCT Chemicals FZE and Chempioil FZE were linked to him, but denied violating any Lithuanian or EU laws. He said his companies had not shipped Lithuanian products to Russia after the relevant ban was introduced. Sudheimer said he would challenge what he called unfair sanctions imposed on his Emirati company. Regarding Chempioil FZE’s 2023 shipments, Sudheimer said deliveries to Uzbekistan were indeed intended for Uzbekistan and that his companies had no way of controlling what happened to the products after they arrived in Central Asia.
