Investigations
Russia is assembling Shahed-type kamikaze drones using Chinese components — many of them purchased directly from major Chinese companies, an investigation by The Insider has found. The shipments from China include a substantial share of the drone’s essential parts — from engines and pistons to the carbon fiber sheeting used to build the wings. Some of the items were disguised as snowmobile components, and at least one supplier was registered to college students. With a touch of irony, the entities moving these parts have adopted names inspired by famous English pirates: “Drake” and “Morgan.”
Chinese antennas
The drones in question — the Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 — are Iranian-designed loitering munitions that gained notoriety during the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Their localized Russian versions are named Geran-1 and Geran-2 (which translates to “Geranium” after the eponymous flower).
The drones are manufactured at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Russia’s Tatarstan Region, where students are actively involved in their assembly. The zone itself is owned by the Ministry of Land and Property Relations of Tatarstan. All drone-related activity there is overseen by Timur Shagivaleev.
In order to evade Ukrainian electronic warfare en route to their targets, these drones require complex satellite antennas, which are often Chinese-made. An analysis of customs data by The Insider revealed large-scale shipments of such navigation antennas from China to the Russian town of Yelabuga, located in the Republic of Tatarstan.
Satellite navigation antenna from a Shahed (Geran) drone, designed to resist jamming
Photo: Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov
Records show that the Chinese manufacturer Harxon Corporation shipped over 300 kilograms of antennas worth more than $1 million to a Russian company, LLC Morgan (ООО «Морган»), based in Yelabuga, in August and September 2024. Yelabuga is not known for producing consumer electronics that rely on satellite navigation, which suggests that these deliveries were made for a military purpose. Customs documents also show that Morgan has fulfilled government defense contracts.
Harxon is a major Chinese company with an extensive global distribution network stretching to the United States. Its antennas are available both as individual chips and as ready-to-use assemblies, and they include models designed to resist jamming. In total, Harxon Corporation shipped $1.8 million worth of goods to Russia in 2024.
Harxon antenna component
Harxon
Student pirates
LLC Morgan was registered at the Alabuga SEZ in March 2024, just before the procurement activity from China began. In less than a year, the company has reported 1.4 billion rubles (roughly $15 million) in revenue. It has imported various components directly from major Chinese manufacturers, including Suzhou Ecod Precision Manufacturing and Jinhua Hairun Power Technology.
Morgan also brought 140,000 Taiwanese lithium-ion batteries from E-One Moli Energy (Molicel) into Yelabuga. Some components — including five metric tons of metal blanks for internal combustion engines from Zhejiang Lianxing Machinery — were disguised as snowmobile parts. Gyroscopes worth $40,000 were purchased from Shandong Xinyilu International Trade.
According to Russia’s SPARK corporate database, Morgan officially employs only one person. Its registered founders are Maksim Petrovich Ivanov, Sergei Mikhailovich Pichugin, Salavat Albertovich Fakhraziyev, and Maksim Timurovich Shadybayev — all aged 19 or 20. Judging from his profile on the social network VK, Fakhraziyev is a student at the Yelabuga Polytechnic College — the same institution that became infamous for employing its students in the assembly of Geran drones. Fakhraziyev and Shadybayev are also friends on VK.
Reached by phone, Shadybayev confirmed that he “studies at Alabuga Polytech and works there too” but claimed he had no knowledge of Morgan’s procurement activities. “We used to work in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone,” he said. “We were told to set up a company. We did it. Task complete.” He added that the order came from his supervisors at the SEZ.
Fakhraziyev also said he knew little about the company’s operations and claimed that he planned to remove himself as a founder.
“Drake” the bearing importer
Another player in the Shahed supply chain is LLC Drake (ООО «Дрейк»), a sanctioned Russian company that is linked to the Alabuga industrial production SEZ through a series of firms. In 2024, LLC Drake imported $6.5 million worth of industrial equipment, parts, and consumables into Alabuga. These included spectrum analyzers, magnets, and bearings supplied by Shandong Xinyilu; fuel pumps from Hui Run Electrical Machinery; cylinders and piston rings from Jinhua Hairun Power Technology; carburetors from Fujian Jingke Technology; fasteners from Hebei Dabang; and tubing from Guangdong Engineering Plastics Industries.
Most notably, the imports included several million dollars’ worth of carbon fiber sheeting — a critical material for manufacturing drone airframes — produced by Yixing Huaheng High-Performance Fiber Weaving.
Suppliers also included Chinese manufacturers Jinhua Hairun Power Technology and Hebei Dabang Import and Export Trade.
Requests for comment from The Insider to Morgan, Harxon, E-One Moli Energy (Molicel), Suzhou Ecod Precision Manufacturing, Jinhua Hairun Power Technology, and Taizhou Lintai Power Technology remained unanswered as of the time of publication.