Navalny team discovers unsanctioned foreign assets of Mkrtich Okroyan, chief designer of a factory that produces missiles used against Ukraine

Navalny associates have found foreign assets belonging to Mkrtich Okroyan, the chief designer of the Soyuz factory, which produces, among other things, engines for Kh-22 missiles. In mid-January, one such missile partially destroyed a residential building in Dnipro. The factory has not come under Western sanctions.

The investigation revealed that Okroyan’s 28-year-old daughter, Anna, owns a mansion in Surrey, in the UK, which was purchased in 2020 for six million pounds (over 7 million USD). Okroyan, his wife, and his son and daughter use the address in documents relating to their company, Bento Minerals Europe Limited, which sells bentonite clay for construction, water purification, and animal feed. These documents also suggest that Orkoyan and his wife are UK residents. Neither the family members nor Bento Minerals Europe Limited are subject to sanctions.

The investigation also uncovered a Polish branch of the company, headed by Okroyan’s brother, Harutyun. And Okroyan’s wife, Alla, and his son, Andranik, are shareholders in a factory, one whose board of directors Okroyan himself serves, in the Russian city of Balashikha. Unlike the family, that factory is subject to Western sanctions, because it produces metal and parts for the Russian army.

“Okroyan is one of the instigators of this war. The Soyuz factory, Okroyan’s overseas companies, and his entire family should be sanctioned, and their English assets seized. They were bought in blood,” the report concludes.