Recently, Kremlin propaganda staged a spectacle of “awarding the gold medal of Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation” to Crimean collaborator Alexander Batalin, the permanent “director” of the Simferopol “Fiolent” plant.
Perhaps this gesture can be considered a kind of “response” to Batalin’s stripping of the title “Hero of Ukraine” a year and a half ago, but it’s worth remembering that “Fiolent” is now included by the occupiers in the “list of systemically important organizations of the country,” and its role in the aggressor’s “state defense order,” specifically as a “defense enterprise,” was not particularly hidden at the current “award ceremony.”
Before the full-scale aggression, the plant’s main focus was “automation systems for technical equipment on commercial vessels,” and it actively collaborated on these matters with the infamous “Russian Maritime Register of Shipping” and other “certification bodies.”
Since 2022, occupiers’ propaganda has claimed that “Fiolent” will allegedly manufacture “high-precision sensors” and transformers for “Sukhoi Superjet” aircraft, as well as certain “electric machines” for “MS-21” aircraft, primarily on Japanese machine tools from “Tsugami”, which were once imported to the plant.
Recently, the “Crimean press” claimed that “Fiolent”‘s products allegedly “account for one-third of the goods exported” from Crimea to the Lukashenko regime. However, at the current “award ceremony,” Batalin stated that “MS-21 aircraft, based on defense technologies, are already equipped with our high-precision instruments,” also pointing to some “cooperation” with “Rosatom”.
However, equipping the long-suffering “MS-21”, which currently exists in a single copy and is once again promised to be put into production at the Irkutsk Aircraft Plant in the “medium term,” clearly doesn’t require “Fiolent” to ensure, according to Batalin’s current report, “the defense enterprise’s work rhythm is uninterrupted even for a single day.”
Thus, it is clear that aircraft products from the “Fiolent” plant are now in demand not for the “Sukhoi Superjet” or “MS-21”, but for military fixed-wing drones, as well as for Russian military manned aviation.
Against this background, it should be noted that the plant’s production facilities also house the so-called “Simferopol scientific and technical center” of the Moscow-based “Gamma” “Scientific and Production Enterprise”, which is responsible for “ensuring the information security of automated information systems” for Russian structures.
It is also worth noting the occupiers’ meticulous secrecy regarding the plant’s current beneficiaries. The aggressor’s “register” only lists “mixed ownership,” some of which is likely declared “republican,” while others are controlled by “respected individuals.”
It is therefore not surprising that the occupiers have “registered” the structure “Benefit-F” in the name of the same Batalin, as well as his “deputies” Anatoly Novichenko and Vladimir Filonov, whose main activity is stated to be “investments in securities.”
