If any part of this rumored data leak of Russian nuclear blueprints is true?

AY DIOS MIO

It changes the calculus of just how decrepit the Russians seem to be on the surface and what they really are.

Danwatch, a Danish investigative media watchdog working in conjunction with German magazine Der Spiegel, has somehow managed to get its mitts on some some pretty amazing documents and blueprints. The two organizations have spent years downloading and comparing Russian military equipment documents called 'tenders.' Additionally, Danwatch has managed to obtain millions of inadvertently uploaded blueprints and plans as part of that cache of documents.

Danwatch and Der Spiegel have uncovered hundreds of highly detailed blueprints showing how Russia is undergoing a massive modernization of some of the world's most guarded nuclear weapons bases: https://t.co/EOSdW6Re7k pic.twitter.com/dMwroyUokf

— Danwatch (@DanWatchDK) May 28, 2025

They have obtained quite a spectacular and unsettling trove of information, should it all check out.

...Russia is quietly carrying out a modernization of its nuclear missile infrastructure near the Kazakh border, according to leaked classified documents and satellite imagery analyzed by Danish investigative group Danwatch and Germany’s Der Spiegel on May 28.

The revelations focus on extensive upgrades at silo complexes in the Orenburg region, particularly near the city of Yasny, where Russia’s 621st and 368th Missile Regiments are stationed. Both regiments are equipped with the Avangard strategic nuclear missile system, a hypersonic weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The leaked documents—part of a cache of more than two million files—include detailed architectural plans, internal layouts, and procurement records for new military installations. Much of this sensitive material was inadvertently published on Russia’s public government procurement portals, a practice that continued for years despite a 2020 shift to a classified tender system for military contracts.

Interestingly enough, 'tenders' point to many of the most critical of these upgrades being made with the assistance of a German company, Knauf.

Sanctions?

What sanctions?

...“These bases were essentially rebuilt from scratch,” Danwatch reported. “Hundreds of new barracks, watchtowers, control centers, and warehouses were erected. Kilometers of underground tunnels were dug.”

Satellite images support this account, showing new roads, blast-resistant buildings, and reinforced security infrastructure. Construction supply records confirm the delivery of large volumes of steel, cement, sand, bricks, and insulation materials, suggesting massive ongoing investment.

According to Danwach, many of these materials—including cement, adhesives, insulation, and soundproofing—were imported from Western suppliers, most notably the German firm Knauf, despite international sanctions.

Especially when the German mother company has retained complete control of its Russian subsidiaries as opposed to divesting (and the Der Spiegel link is paywalled, unfortunately).

...The documents come from a Russian tender database. They reveal for the first time that the Russian military relies on products from Western companies for some of the world's most secret construction sites. These include building materials such as cement and gypsum, adhesives, insulation, and soundproofing.

Products from Knauf, a company with billions in sales, based in Iphofen in Lower Franconia, are particularly in demand.

The company has publicly distanced itself from its Russian business. However, research by SPIEGEL and the Danish investigative portal Danwatch  now paints a different picture. Knauf retains full control over its Russian subsidiaries. One of them was even considered "systemically important" in Putin's empire at one point.

After being publicly outed in April 2024 by the ARD (kind of the German version of PBS) magazine 'Monitor' for Knauf-branded building materials being at construction sites in Russian-occupied Mariupal, the Knauf family condemned 'Russia's war of aggression.' They have been in talks to 'withdraw' from its Russian business ever since, and while these ongoing, 'complicated' talks are in the 'advanced stage,' the company still maintains complete control of its subsidiaries. 

While distancing themselves from anything they do, naturally.

The Danwatch and Der Spiegel crew expose the tricksy language of sanctions circumvention. The key is not to directly import your products from Germany, but to exactly reproduce your German products in Russia.

...But many sanctions can be circumvented if you just know the magic word: "import substitution." This means replacing materials that are subject to import bans.

In June 2022, Russian Knauf subsidiaries participated in a roundtable discussion with industry representatives entitled "Import Substitution. Interregional Cooperation under New Economic Conditions." In the fall of 2024, they organized tours for press representatives. Experts from a construction portal subsequently reported on the event under the headline "Import Substitution, Knauf Style: Modern Solutions for Bold Projects."

...The strategy is clearly not to export its own branded products from Germany, but to produce them in Russia. For example, the Unihard gypsum filler was introduced to the Russian market as a replacement for the Knauf product Uniflott, after Uniflott deliveries from Germany were discontinued following the outbreak of the war. Furthermore, the Knauf plant in Belarus has begun using Russian materials and raw materials to "produce mixtures that we previously sourced from Germany," says a Russian Knauf manager.

The Russian subsidiary Knauf Gips alone has registered at least 20 new trademarks in Russia after February 2022.

In any case, the builders of the buildings around the nuclear silos rely on Knauf and record this in their documents. For example, in July 2023, when they approved an order for the 368th Regiment in Yasnyj: 32 tons of Knauf-Rotband gypsum or an equivalent product.

The construction crews have been busy at the missile bases, as European intelligence sources have apparently confirmed that satellite imagery bolsters the story told by documents.

...Satellite images of silos can therefore be unnerving. The construction sites portend trouble underground, and the facilities appear larger, more massive, more modern, and better protected than in the past.

Bases like the one in Yasny have already been partially equipped with Avangard missiles, as European military experts confirmed to SPIEGEL. A European intelligence agency concludes that some missile sites have been equipped with new sensor technology and improved protective devices. The silos housing the Avangard systems, for example, have been fundamentally redesigned, are better protected, and are made of higher-quality materials, it says.

One of the nuclear experts quoted in the Danwatch report (which I will warn you is presented in an intensely annoying, slow-moving slide-show fashion), Hans M/ Kristensen, has said that, thanks to the blueprints, it's the first time they've been able to see what goes on underground, calling it 'completely unprecedented.'

It's hard to believe what all they've found. It seems like everything except the location of the missiles themselves and their warheads. One would think they'd be a tad more careful with that information.

...The leaked blueprints also expose critical security features, including:

• Triple-layered electrified perimeter fencing

• Reinforced concrete buildings with blast-resistant windows and doors

• Infrared motion detectors, seismic and radiation sensors

• Internal surveillance camera placements

• Detailed interior layouts identifying weapons lockers, underground tunnels, and even signage locations inside buildings

Norwegian military expert Tom Røseth told journalists the documents offer undeniable proof of Russia’s nuclear modernization efforts. He added that Moscow will likely be forced to alter some of these facilities to mitigate the risks posed by the leak—a process that will be both time-consuming and costly.

The Russian news agency Tass had an article five years ago that announced a program to upgrade and replace Avangrid and Yars launchers and infrastructure in various locations around the Baltic, etc. This was while the actual existence of the Avangard was still being debated.

If what Danwatch and Der Spiegel have found and combed through turns out to be completely legit? 

It looks like the 'ragtag' Russian rehab has been humming along under everyone's noses and doing just fine the entire time, with a little help from their friends and no one the wiser.