The company producing buttons and zippers – the company "Arta-F", which was suspected of providing resources to the Russian armed forces – was declared insolvent, according to information from the Insolvency Register. The Riga City Court announced the start of bankruptcy proceedings for JSC "Arta-F" on July 24. Sanda Kraukle has been appointed as bankruptcy administrator. The deadline for lender applications is August 26th. As already reported, in mid-October last year, the State Security Service (SSS) carried out procedural actions at facilities associated with a company in Riga and other places in Latvia. The basis for action is suspicion of providing resources to the Russian armed forces. According to LETA, this company is Arta-F. The State Security Service carried out procedural actions at five sites, the service reported then. The State Security Service began the criminal process in accordance with Article 77.2 of the Criminal Law, that is, for the possible indirect transfer of property to a party participating in an armed conflict outside the territory of the Republic of Latvia, whose actions are directed against the territorial integrity of Ukraine. During the searches, the State Security Service seized a large number of data carriers and documents, as well as samples of the company's products. In addition, cash worth more than half a million euros was discovered at properties associated with the company. In turn, the TV3 program "Nekā personīga" reported that Mikhail Khodorkovsky's media, which is opposed to the Kremlin, discovered a connection between the manufacturer of uniforms for the Russian army and a company in Latvia that, among other things, produces buttons and zippers. And this company is "Arta-F". "Nekā personīga" indicated that Khodorkovsky's media "Khodorkovsky Live" has been monitoring several manufacturers that supply the Russian army since the beginning of the war. Among them is also the BTK-Group holding, which is considered one of the main manufacturers of military clothing in Russia. Production facilities are located in ten regions, including Belarus and South Ossetia. With the signing of Putin's decree in 2010, the holding became the main supplier to the armed forces. Information about the size of government orders "BTK-Group" is classified. The company also does not widely advertise that it makes uniforms for the army. According to the broadcast, information about the company’s cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Defense was obtained in the process of studying several court documents of this company and the ministry in the Moscow courts. "Nekā personīga" noted that databases are available on the Internet in which logistics routes of goods can be tracked. They collect information about the senders of goods, recipients, description of the goods, date of dispatch and weight of the cargo. Using this information, it is possible to estimate the volume of Arta-F products that came to Russia. Journalists from Khodorkovsky's media have calculated that since the beginning of the war, the value of goods sent by the company to Russia is about six million US dollars. Most of it went to the BTK-Group holding. “From this, of course, one cannot draw direct conclusions that all this was used to produce uniforms for the occupation army. But the volumes are significant,” the program stated. According to information from Firmas.lv, Arta-F was registered in 1991 and its authorized capital is 712,641 euros. In 2022, Arta-F had a turnover of 8.062 million euros and a profit of 983,930 euros. The company's 2023 financials have not yet been released. The real beneficiaries of the company are Vladislav Andreev and Vitaly Andreev.
