Companies linked to German businessman Juri Sudheimer supplied lubricants to Russia for more than a year after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to an investigation by The Insider and Lithuanian investigative outlet Siena. The report alleges that lubricants produced by Sudheimer-linked companies reached Russian customers, including recipients tied to the country’s defense industry.
The investigation, based on customs data reviewed by The Insider and Siena, says UAB SCT Lubricants, a blending company in Klaipeda, Lithuania, supplied lubricants directly to Russia until 2023. The recipient was JSC NLK, a Kirov, Russia-based company owned by Sudheimer. It alleges shipments continued after direct sales ended.
Russian entities imported 1,080 metric tons of lubricants from Dubai-based SCT Chemicals FZE, the holder of the Mannol trademark, in 2024, followed by another 550 tons in the first quarter of 2025, according to the investigation. Separately, JSC NLK imported 370 tons of SCT products in 2024 through Dubai-based Chempioil FZE, another company founded by Sudheimer.
Chempioil also shipped more than 300 tons of lubricants from Klaipeda to Russia in 2023, the investigation found. While shipments initially moved directly, they were later routed through Uzbekistan, with the United Arab Emirates listed as the country of dispatch.
In 2026, the European Commission sanctioned SCT Chemicals FZE because its lubricants were used in diesel engines produced by Russia’s JSC Kolomensky Zavod, a supplier of diesel engines for warships. The plant had already been added to the European Union sanctions list in December 2023.
Sudheimer, who originates from Kazakhstan and is now a German citizen residing in Switzerland, denied violating Lithuanian or European Union law. He said his companies had not shipped Lithuanian products to Russia after the relevant ban took effect and that he would challenge what he described as unfair sanctions imposed on his Emirati company. Regarding Chempioil FZE’s 2023 shipments, Sudheimer said deliveries to Uzbekistan were intended for that market and that his companies had no way of controlling what happened to the products after they arrived in Central Asia.
SCT and the European Commission did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.