Iranian businessman Hossein Shamkhani owns a business that provides a quarter of Iranian weapons supplies to Russia.
Bloomberg reports this, citing sources.
Hossein Shamkhani is the son of Ali Shamkhani, a former Iranian defense minister who now serves as an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to Bloomberg, Shamkhani Jr. is part of a group of businessmen who supply arms to Russia via the Caspian Sea. He plays a “key role” in selling Iranian weapons to Moscow.
The businessman owns a network of companies that export oil and petroleum products from Iran and Russia through countries that have not joined the sanctions. Shamkhaniʼs business empire also includes a hedge fund with offices in London, Geneva and Singapore and a fleet of dozens of ships, including tankers and cargo ships.
According to Bloomberg sources, since last year, a network of companies associated with Shamkhani, including Dubai-based Crios Shipping LLC, began transporting weapons, drone parts, and dual-use goods on their ships.
The ships owned by Crios previously operated on the Mediterranean and Black Sea routes. But in mid-2023, the ships moved to the Caspian Sea and have been plying between Iran and Russia ever since. These ships include the Sea Castle (also known as Tooka) and the Sea Anchor (also known as Roja). There are likely others. The Sea Castle and Sea Anchor have made at least five trips from Iranian ports to Astrakhan, Russia, this year.
Moscow is paying for these shipments in oil, Bloomberg sources said. It is unclear how many weapons have already been delivered by ships controlled by Shamkhani’s network. The sources said the weapons were not declared on the shipping documents to avoid a paper trail.
- Moscow and Tehranʼs defense partnership has grown significantly since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. For example, the Russian Defense Ministry has been using Iranian-made Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones to strike Ukraine. In early September , Iran transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.