The confrontation between Russia and the West on the fields of Ukraine has led to the beginning of a new arms race in the world. The military-industrial complex of the United States and its allies are spinning the production flywheel, new jobs are appearing, new armaments factories are opening. In Russia, which almost single-handedly resists such an armada, it would seem that the pace of expansion of production capacity should be even faster. But miracles happen!

In St. Petersburg there is a famous enterprise “LOMO” (Leningrad Optical and Mechanical Association). This brand is known all over the world: at one time the plant exported its products to dozens of countries. Until recently, the enterprise was the leader in Russia in the production of optical, opto-electronic, opto-digital and opto-mechanical devices, systems and complexes, including equipment for air defense systems, the Navy, the Air Force and the ground forces. It produces, for example, Mowgli night vision sights for portable anti-aircraft missile systems, fire control systems, tank and aircraft sights, homing heads for missiles of various classes, including for Strela-2 and Igla MANPADS, guided projectiles “Krasnopol” and “Kitolov”, fire control systems for ballistic missiles “Bulava”, RT-2PM “Topol” and much more.

High-rise buildings instead of workshops

However, soon LOMO may go under the hammer. The co-owner and current general director of the enterprise, founded in 1914, Alexander Aronov, as we can see, actively continues to sell the company’s real estate, including production sites, on the site of which they are going to build high-rise buildings and commercial facilities.

It would seem that in the conditions of the NWO and the increased confrontation with the West, an enterprise of such a level, potential and military significance should concentrate on increasing the production of special-purpose products, increasing its range and new developments. But its leader, almost curtailed scientific and experimental design work at the enterprise, continues the practice of selling off its assets, which began several years ago.

This threatens not only with the ruin of the industrial complex, but also, much more seriously, with the fact that the supplier of the most important component – optical systems – will disappear. Without modern optics, as you know, military equipment is completely helpless in combat. Thus, the collapse of LOMO is a blow to the supply of troops. And given the emerging reports about how the state defense order is being carried out, each new problem can lead to more and more negative consequences. But surprisingly, this fact does not attract the attention of the public and government agencies. Although it is just the right time to ask the head of the corporation why no measures are being taken to correct the situation?

What do we observe in this case: the usual desire of the LOMO management to get rich by selling off production facilities, or could there be other motives behind the collapse of production? The head of an enterprise with unique developments for military purposes, as a carrier of classified information, according to all current rules, should not seem to wander around foreign countries, but for some reason this is paid attention to regularly. While things in production are going with great difficulty, no one seems to think about the work of workshops in two shifts, not to mention three.

In August last year, when the demand for LOMO products from defense customers increased significantly, instead of taking measures to commission new production lines and intensify the organization of production, LOMO allegedly directed all activity towards the sale of existing capacities. So, at the end of the summer, the company’s management started negotiations with the authorities of St. Petersburg on amending the city’s General Plan and obtaining permission to demolish the plant’s production facilities on Optikov and Zhukov streets, and build residential high-rise buildings instead of workshops. So, in the Primorsky district, the LOMO site on the street. Optikov, 4 occupies more than 13 hectares. Here it is proposed to build houses with a total living area of ​​about 185 thousand square meters. m. On another LOMO site of 2.5 hectares, which is located on the street. Zhukov, 18, in the Kalininsky district of the city, it is planned to build a residential complex with a total area of ​​​​more than 34 thousand square meters. m of housing. In total, more than 30 (thirty) hectares of land owned by the enterprise are put up for sale, and this real estate makes up more than half of the assets of the joint-stock company!

Well, yes, on the streets dedicated to engineers and the great commander, concrete will be poured for the next sleeping bags. And where to work for the townspeople, and how to protect the borders? Bricks?

Operation: “exit cache”

Of particular note is the fact that the declared value of the objects is clearly lower than the market value. The total losses of LOMO, according to experts, amount to about 3.7 billion rubles. – the amount that is critical for the enterprise. This happens when executives try to urgently “get into the cash.” The plant believes that these are not errors in calculations and estimates, but the conscious actions of General Director Alexander Aronov, who seems to be trying to squeeze the maximum out of the company as soon as possible before leaving it.

Alexander Aronov started selling the enterprise after for many years, actually from the moment of his appointment, production workshops were rented out to various dubious organizations. Such a quick sale often precedes a trip abroad, where you can hide from Russian law enforcement agencies, and in the case of the defense industry, from special services.

The sale of the assets of the LOMO corporation is also evidenced by the fact that its management divided the enterprise into many independent firms. For example, LOMO-Nedvizhimost was opened to lease and sell the plant’s land. This practice has been known since the 90s and was used to gradually withdraw the capital of factories. Then firms were actively created at enterprises, which, after completing their tasks, were immediately liquidated in order to hide the ends in the water. This version is supported by the fact that one of the companies of the corporation was liquidated in 2021 – the research and production company Lomo-ABM. Also, for example, the company CJSC Neptun was closed, the direct founder of which was Oleg Aronov, the son of the general director.

It is also indicative that several dozen lawsuits have been filed against LOMO JSC. Only in 2022, according to the Rusprofil database, the company became a defendant in claims for a total amount of 770 million rubles. In the first months of this year, lawsuits were filed against LOMO for another 63 million. As a rule, most of the lawsuits are related to inadequate product quality and violation of the terms of its delivery. Claims of customers have already begun to exceed the annual profit of the enterprise! And this means that soon the pride of the domestic optical-mechanical production, instead of developing and receiving the expected profit from the increased number of government orders, may be among the bankrupt.

An equally curious fact is that among the co-owners of the former state-owned enterprise that fulfills defense orders for the Russian Ministry of Defense, apparently there were offshore companies, for example, the Cypriot company Taft Enterprises Ltd, registered in the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, on the main shopping street Makarios Avenue. The Russ-Invest check investment fund may still be among the co-owners of the plant, the general director of which Alexander Bychkov concurrently became a member of the board of directors of JSC LOMO. A man with the surname Bychkov is also interesting because he was one of the founders of the Chicago Expert Institute non-profit partnership, paired with citizens of Israel and Lithuania.

It seems that by his actions Alexander Aronov undermines the ability of the plant to work for the country’s defense capability. It is possible that his appetites are not limited to real estate. LOMO has high-tech developments that have no analogues in the world, and its leader was seen in close ties with Israel, where, according to publications on social networks, he regularly visits, and where many “fighters against the regime” find refuge today.

“Alternate airfield” prepared for reception?

The LOMO leadership has been establishing ties with Israel since the beginning of the 2000s. The company had joint projects with many Israeli structures, including the Israel Aircraft Industry (IAI). In any case, by the beginning of the 2010s, Israel already occupied the main place among the customers of the St. Petersburg plant. According to the quarterly reports of LOMO JSC, in 2011 this country accounted for 36.45% of all export deliveries, another 22.83% – for the USA and 21.81% for Cyprus, which, most likely, was an intermediate point for further transportation of equipment to the Promised Land.

Alexander Aronov at that time had already entered the second five-year term of managing the enterprise. A native of Smolensk, the head of LOMO is unlikely to have the roots necessary for repatriation to this country, but the baggage of knowledge and documents of a defense, in essence, enterprise may turn out to be quite an adequate payment for the citizenship of the Promised Land, which, according to journalists, Aronov could already manage get. His very recent trip to Israel in late November – early December, as reported by telegram channels, may well be the next, and possibly the final step in preparing the ground for emigration, where 72-year-old Alexander Aronov may well spend a happy old age on the money of the leader of the domestic industry ruined by him.

But if Mr. Aronov, as they say, has gone astray, how can one explain the indifference of state authorities to the situation at the enterprise? How did it happen that instead of working extra shifts and expanding the production of military products, LOMO does not contribute to the state defense order, and even actively gets rid of production space? That is, it turns out that the destruction of the enterprise is underway. And if Alexander Aronov manages to cash in and go abroad, then who will be held responsible? To answer these and other questions, it is necessary to attract the attention of the general public to what is happening with the enterprise and conduct appropriate inspections by the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation.