Meet the Pentagon contractor openly offering advice to Russian sniper rifle manufacturers

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Konstantin Konev, the Director of Engineering at U.S. firearms manufacturer LMT Defense, maintains ties with a number of Russian weapons producers. On his YouTube blog, the gunsmith hosts livestreams with Russian manufacturers, snipers, and pro-war bloggers. After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, two of Konev’s former colleagues facilitated the introduction to Russia of the ultra-long-range NATO caliber .375 CheyTac, and rifles chambered in this caliber have since come into use by Russian snipers.

Remarkably, while Konev publicly advises Russian firearms manufacturers on the development and improvement of their small arms, his employer is working to fulfill a $92 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.

Firearms blog and conflict of interest

Konstantin Konev began developing small arms in Russia in the 1990s and has worked abroad since 2007. In 2021, he became the engineering director of the U.S. manufacturer LMT Defense. In August 2025, the company secured a ten-year contract worth up to $92 million to supply small arms components to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

In addition to his work at the American defense company, Konev runs a weapons blog on YouTube with 30,000 subscribers. After reviewing the video content, The Insider identified a number of indirect indicators suggesting Konev’s role in modernizing small arms production in Russia.

How did Russia obtain the ultra-long-range sniper caliber?

The influence of Konstantin Konev on the development of sniper weapons in Russia can be most clearly illustrated through the example of one ultra-long-range caliber. The evolution of Russian sniper technical capabilities after World War II can be divided into three historical stages.

In 1963, with the adoption of the Dragunov sniper rifle (SVD) chambered in 7.62×54 mm, Soviet marksmen received a weapon capable of engaging targets at distances of up to 600–800 meters. The medium caliber of the SVD allowed operators to hit unprotected personnel, but its energy was insufficient to penetrate body armor— modern hard armor plates can stop such a bullet even at ranges of several hundred meters.

In 2011, the Russian Airborne Forces adopted Austrian rifles chambered in the more powerful .338 Lapua Magnum. This led to two qualitative breakthroughs: the effective engagement range against a standing target increased to approximately 1,500 meters, and with the use of armor-piercing ammunition, it became possible for Russian snipers to reliably engage targets protected by modern armor plates.

The third stage began in 2023, when ORSIS rifles chambered in .375 CheyTac entered service with the Russian Ministry of Defense. This caliber belongs to the extreme long-range category, with effective operating distances of 1,800–2,200 meters. It retains high residual energy and, when using armor-piercing ammunition, can penetrate body armor plates and lightly armored vehicles in situations where 7.62×54 mm and even .338 Lapua Magnum are ineffective.

Small arms experts would have been surprised by how quickly the recently developed caliber appeared in the Russian military. The .375 CheyTac was designed in 2009 as a derivative of the .408 CheyTac. The neck of the larger cartridge was resized to accommodate a lighter bullet, which enabled higher muzzle velocities with reduced recoil. The new caliber remained a “wildcat” cartridge without official status and received CIP certification only in 2017.

This caliber appeared in Russia thanks to Konstantin Konev’s former colleague Vladimir Grebenyuk. Grebenyuk is an important figure in Russian sniper development: he organizes the “Metkiy Strelok” (“Good Shot”) competitions for military snipers, heads a shooting club in Ramenskoye near Moscow, owns the weapons manufacturer Tactical Sniper Systems (TSS), and until recently co-owned the arms importer Varyag LLC, which has been involved in importing American and European rifles into Russia in violation of sanctions.

In 2022, Grebenyuk organized a record-breaking long-range shot with a Russian sniper rifle at a distance of 5,117 meters. A participant in the event noted that Grebenyuk was the first middleman to arrange the supply of American Berger 407gr Long Range bullets in .375 CheyTac caliber. Then, together with Promtekhnologiya director Svetlana Nikolaeva, Grebenyuk participated in the development of the ORSIS-CT20 rifle, which was designed specifically for use with those American bullets. The achieved distance and shooting results proved convincing for the Russian Ministry of Defense. Since April 2023, ORSIS-CT20 rifles in the new caliber have been adopted by the military and are used by snipers of the 24th Separate Guards Special Purpose Brigade, the 7th Air Assault Division, and other units.

Konstantin Konev is linked both to Grebenyuk and to Promtekhnologiya, the Russian company that produces ORSIS rifles. Grebenyuk himself stated in a November 2024 interview with Konev that the two had first met when they were working at Promtekhnologiya sometime between 2015 and 2017. This information is also supported by data on Konev’s income contained in leaked banking records.

In 2025, Konev released two joint videos with Grebenyuk. The weapons specialists discuss barrel longevity in magnum calibers, the impact of barrel twist rate on stabilizing heavy bullets, the use of wildcat calibers, and their effectiveness in penetrating armor at long ranges. In addition, the technical director of the U.S. company mentioned that he discusses critical technical details of weapon systems with Russian colleagues in a private chat.

Although there is no evidence of Konev’s involvement in smuggling, it is noteworthy that Russian companies associated with Grebenyuk make active use of American ammunition, weapons, and components. Tactical Sniper Systems (TSS LLC) uses barrel blanks from U.S. manufacturers Bartlein and Krieger for the production of Russian rifles. The aforementioned Varyag LLC imports American cartridges produced by Federal Cartridge as well as Barrett and Desert Tech rifles. (Desert Tech employed Konev from 2017 to 2019.)

The Insider previously noted Varyag’s ties to another U.S. company, Colorado-based ABF Inc., co-owned by Russia-born Alex Burlakov. In 2021, the company shipped 40 tactical weapon flashlights to Varyag. After the full-scale war began, ABF started supplying weapons to Kazakhstan, which is part of the Customs Union with Russia. In 2022–2023, the company exported 53 rifles manufactured by Accuracy International, Cadex Defence, FN Herstal, Patriot Ordnance Factory, and Proof Research to Kazakhstan. However, none of the listed brands were available for purchase on the website of the Kazakh company Kazokhotrybolovsoyuz, which was formally listed as the recipient of this weaponry. Varyag imported Accuracy International and Cadex rifles during the same period.

Russian CheyTac by Konev’s former colleague

In addition to Promtekhnologiya, another Russian manufacturer producing .375 CheyTac sniper rifles is Lobaev Arms. Its founder, Vladislav Lobaev, has long been acquainted with Konstantin Konev: in the early 2010s, both engineers worked at Caracal in the UAE, as Konev mentioned in an interview. Lobaev's DXL-4 Sevastopol rifles chambered in .375 CheyTac have been used by Russian snipers at least since 2023.

Like Grebenyuk’s companies, Lobaev’s firms do not face serious difficulties circumventing the arms embargo. In December 2025, Vladislav Lobaev opened a branded store on Moscow’s Uspenskoye Highway, where a Lobaev Arms rifle can be purchased as part of a package that includes American Nightforce or ZCO scopes and American Accu-Tac bipods. The trade in U.S. equipment continues despite the fact that Lobaev and his foundation were placed on the U.S. sanctions list in February 2024.

The U.S. regulator targeted three companies linked to Lobaev, all of which conduct minimal economic activity: the Design Bureau of Integrated Systems LLC, the Lobaev Arms Trading House, and the Foundation for the Development of Weapons Technologies and Production (Lobaev Foundation). At the same time, U.S. officials did not sanction the legal entity directly engaged in rifle production — Lobaev’s Barrel Company LLC, which reported revenue of 257 million rubles ($3.3 million) and is registered under the name of the designer’s wife.

American expertise for Russian arms manufacturers

In addition to his chats with Grebenyuk, Konev hosts YouTube live streams with several other Russian weapons manufacturers and snipers. Among them are PufGun founder Igor Kazakov, professional long-range shooter Valery Shits, and bullet manufacturer Mikhail Gurevich.

In 2022, Konev published an interview with Russian pro-war blogger Alexander Arutyunov, who runs social media accounts under the nickname Razvedos. Konev noted that he met Arutyunov in 2000–2001, when they participated together in sniper training sessions and conducted bullet velocity measurements. Arutyunov is a former special forces serviceman whose blog describes real combat experience with small arms in the war in Ukraine. During the interview, Konev and Arutyunov closely examined the shortcomings of Russian sniper rifles including the SVD, SVC, and ASVK Kord. Konev discussed an “engineering approach” to correcting problems with accuracy, ergonomics, and gas systems in these rifles, effectively providing direct technical advice on how to improve Russian weapons systems.

However, the most sensitive sanctions-compliance issue may be Konev’s discussions with Alexei Golubev of Soyuz TM. In a series of interviews, Konev and Golubev address engineering solutions related to the hybridization of automatic rifles: selecting specific steel grades and heat treatment regimes to compensate for increased bolt pressure, using Ansys software to calculate loads on bolt lug geometry, and optimizing the main Russian automatic caliber 5.45×39 for the AR platform. In practice, Konev provides consulting on the modernization of Russian weapon systems. Soyuz TM products are used by the Federation of Combat Sniping, meaning expert advice provided to a representative of the company could be interpreted as indirect support to Russia’s security apparatus.

As Konev’s employer, LMT Defense could lose its security clearance and potentially face termination of its contract with the Pentagon, given that one of the company’s leading experts is effectively consulting a sanctioned entity, contributing to the improvement of its sniper systems.

Missing details of Konev’s biography

Little is known about Konev’s life before 2007. Although pro-government publications have described him as one of Russia’s most talented designers and an heir to Dragunov and Mosin, open sources do not list his date or place of birth. Even his supporters do not know his patronymic. But The Insider has managed to gather some of the missing details of the weapons designer’s biography.

Konstantin Konev was born on May 22, 1973. Data on his birthplace vary: leaks from Russian databases list Belgorod, while Ukrainian records indicate Kyiv. Konev grew up in the Baltic states, graduated from a Suvorov Military School in Minsk, and later enrolled in a military engineering school there. After meeting arms designer Vladimir Razorenov in 1992, he began participating in small arms development. In 2000–2001, he was involved in sniper training and also competed in sniper shooting events. In 2003, he developed the Konev sniper rifle in Belarus — a design that never entered serial production.

From 2007 to 2013, Konev worked as technical director at the Ukrainian company Zbroyar, where he developed the Z-008 sniper rifle — the most popular Ukrainian precision rifle at the time. In 2013–2014, he worked in the design department of Caracal International in the UAE.

The period from 2014 to 2017 is missing from Konev’s LinkedIn profile. In one interview, he stated that during that time he worked at the Russian company Promtekhnologiya, which produces the ORSIS sniper rifles mentioned above. This information was likely omitted intentionally in order to conceal employment in Russia’s sanctioned defense sector, as it could have hindered his career in the United States. In 2017, Konev became a senior design engineer at Desert Tech, one of the leading U.S. manufacturers of high-precision sniper rifles. He also released his own model, the Konev Modular Rifle, which did not achieve commercial success. He then worked for two years at the U.S. branch of Bulgaria’s Arsenal 2000 JSc. In 2021, he joined the U.S. weapons manufacturer LMT Defense, where he continues to work.