Russian snipers are using Canadian rifles, despite sanctions

The sniper, lying prone and aiming his scope, is a decorated Russian major with 100 kills in Ukraine.

But the pistol in his hands is Canadian.

Despite sanctions banning military exports to Russia, Canadian firearms are still turning up in the country as it wages war against its neighbors.

In Russian social networks, you can increasingly see photographs of Canadian-made rifles, both sniper and for sale.

A video posted on Telegram last year shows a Russian marine, known as Yary, firing a rifle made by Cadex Defence, a company based south of Montreal.

According to the Russian press, Yary commanded a sniper brigade that killed 600 Ukrainians and received a Gold Star from President Vladimir Putin in 2023.

He is now an instructor for the Combat Sniper Federation, which trains snipers for the war in Ukraine. The federation's Telegram account also lists the same model of Cadex rifle.

Another Russian sniper, known as “Nemets”, can be seen posing with another Cadex rifle in a photo posted on Telegram six months ago.

Another Cadex rifle appeared on Telegram with the name of a pro-Russian volunteer detachment fighting in the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Russian Telegram channel “Tactical Sniper Systems” is showing off a Cadex rifle that it says has been modified to look like “SVO,” the acronym for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Canada's international affairs spokesman suggested Russian troops may have taken weapons onto the battlefield that were sent to Ukraine by Canada and other allies.

Social media posts actually appear Ukrainian fighters with Cadex firearmsand in two online photographs, Russian fighters are holding, as described, captured Cadex rifles.

However, at the OrelExpo 2025 arms exhibition, held in Moscow from October 2 to 5, a seemingly completely new Cadex rifle was presented. photos from the event. In the OrelExpo commercial, another Cadex model was shown.

The website of the Moscow arms dealer Varyag also includes photos of seven Cadex rifles in different colors that are sold in his store, but with product tags.

Neither Varyag nor Orelexpo answered the questions.

Based in an industrial park in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. Kadex Defense Its website employs 100 people and supplies “the finest equipment to military and law enforcement agencies around the world.”

But it does not export to Russia, President Serge Dextras told Global News.

How the rifles got there remains a mystery, he said. And when he saw photographs of his products in Russia, he didn’t like it.

“I was very upset,” he said.

I was so upset that I immediately started looking into it and took action. After Global News asked him about 10 Cadex rifles with sequential serial numbers that were listed on a 2023 Russian customs document, he blacklisted the U.S. buyer he sold them to.

“We won't supply them anymore, we're done with it,” he said.

He suspects they were bought and sold, perhaps several times, before ending up with middlemen who shipped them across the world to Russia or one of its neighbors.

Cadex is far from the only manufacturer whose rifles ended up in Russia in this way. According to a former Russian journalist in exile, many large firearms companies face the same problem. Sergey Panov.

He said that although Russian snipers use Cadex rifles, they are not as common as American and European brands.

“There are fewer Kadexes,” said Panov, who has been investigating arms shipments to Russia since fleeing Moscow in 2021.

“But on social networks, in other open sources, we see that there are Russian snipers who use American, Canadian, British and Austrian rifles.”

Russian special forces snipers value foreign weapons, he said, while regular military units tend to rely on less accurate Russian firearms.

It wouldn't be surprising if the Russians wanted Cadex rifles, long-range, precision rifles that are the Mercedes-Benz of their class, Dextrase said.

“So, of course, some people try to lay hands on us. But when they decide they want something, we try to stop it, and there's not much we can do.”

He said he strictly follows federal rules governing gun exports and has turned away many potential buyers.

He listed Libya, Algeria, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Angola and Congo as countries where he refused to sell “just because we felt they might fall into the wrong hands.”

“We serve the special operations forces of most NATO countries,” he said. “We will never sell a rifle to any country that could potentially turn against our people.”

His company also supplies the Canadian Armed Forces; In 2019, Cadex received a $2 million contract for “300 monocular night vision devices,” according to the government. press release.

But companies like Cadex can do a lot on their own to counter Russian sanctions-evasion tactics, he said.

Looking for ideas on what else he could do, he said he turned to his law enforcement contacts for advice.

“And the answer I got from some people abroad: No one can stop the Russians from getting what they want. They always find a way.”

The Ukrainian-Canadian Congress said the use of Canadian sniper rifles against Ukraine was a “shocking discovery” and called on the government to investigate.

Canada needs to strengthen sanctions against those who export products to Russia and devote more resources to enforcing existing sanctions, said CEO Igor Mikhalchishin.

“This is further evidence that compliance with Canadian sanctions is insufficient and ineffective.”

Panov, who now lives in Spain, said research for The InsiderAn online investigative journalism platform has discovered that private firearms companies are responsible for arms shipments to Russia.

Italy has been one of the largest transit countries, and many rifles appear to enter Russia through Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, he said.

He found no evidence of involvement by Russian state security services, but said it may be due to limitations on publicly available commercial data.

Lana Koshkareva, an activist who fled Russia and now lives in Edmonton, finds it difficult to accept the use of Canadian firearms in Ukraine.

“This is a nightmare,” said Koshkareva, who showed Global News several photographs of Russian snipers with Canadian rifles.

She wants Canadian officials to plug holes in the sanctions system to make it harder for the Russians to get their hands on the weapons they use in Ukraine.

This shouldn't happen. Putin's attempts to take over Ukraine have prompted Canada and its international partners to stop exporting military equipment and technology to Russia.

Canada's Global Affairs Representative Tida It said sanctions measures adopted from February 2022 is “unprecedented in its scope.”

They were initially aimed at the Russian military-industrial complex, but on July 19, 2023, Ottawa expanded them to include an outright ban on the export, sale, supply or shipment of weapons.

While the GAC has stated that there have been no “direct” arms exports to Russia since 2015, Panov said that is not the problem.

“The main loophole is resale through third countries, for which liability is either not imposed at all or imposed too late,” he said.

“And, of course, a complete lack of control over compliance with sanctions, when regulatory authorities cannot prove intent in the resale chain.”

Although many weapons are made in the United States, enforcement is rare, with the exception of the June 25 conviction of a Kyrgyz arms dealer who exported $1.5 million worth of firearms and ammunition to Russia.

In Canada only one person has been charged evading Russian sanctions. RCMP arrest Toronto man Anton Trofimov in May. His company allegedly supplied parts for drones to Russia.

An international affairs official said Canadian exporters are responsible for confirming that the end users of their products are not sanctioned.

“Obtaining signed end-user statements from customers, including a provision that they be notified as soon as possible of any ongoing sales or transfers outside the agreed end-customer or market, and a mutual agreement to comply with sanctions provisions, has become more common,” the agency said.

“Enforcement of sanctions is a shared responsibility of the entire Government of Canada and will not hesitate to take appropriate action if there is credible evidence of misuse of Canadian controlled goods or technology.”

A photo that appeared on social media in April showed two Russian snipers in camouflage, believed to be in eastern Ukraine.

The Z symbol used by the troops sent by Putin to invade Ukraine in February 2022 can be seen on one of their uniforms.

The other uses the call sign German. A Russian online publication described him as a 19-year-old sniper who served in riot police before joining the invasion of Ukraine.

It stated that he served in the 291st Army Regiment and that his combat experience proved invaluable in the war.

A recipient of the Order of Courage, he was part of a sniper company that helped repel the Ukrainian counter-offensive, according to a profile on the new website.

In a Telegram message, he posed surrounded by spent cartridges at a training ground, which the caption called the “SVO zone.”

This is the term Russia uses to refer to the territory it occupied during the so-called Special Military Operation in Ukraine.

Showing a photo, Dextrasz confirmed that the rifle displayed in front of the German was made by his company, although he said it was custom-made.

Dextraz said Cadex made no modifications and he doesn't know how the precision rifle ended up in this part of the world.

He said his company has stepped up security measures and even brainstormed ways to prevent this from happening.

But at the end of the day, other than complying with export rules, he's not sure how a company like his can stop a determined campaign to lift Russian sanctions.

“These guys can get anything from anywhere,” he said.

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