GitLab provides services to the Russian army contractors — investigation

GitLab, an international company of Ukrainian origin, stopped sales in Russia and Belarus at the beginning of March, due to the military aggression of these two countries against Ukraine. But the company did not suspend any operations with existing clients. And, as AIN.Capital learned, the suppliers of the Russian military-industrial complex, are among them.

The company’s response to the war

• GitLab was founded by Kharkiv developer Dmytro Zaporozhets and initially developed as a company in Ukraine. Later it entered the international market. The company successfully developed and raised investments. And in October 2021 it went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Following the IPO, Zaporozhets resigned from the management at GitLab. Now it has a distributed team and offices in different countries in the world.
• On March 11, 2022, the company announced that it has stopped operations in the Russian and Belarus markets, but will continue to work with existing customers. “As a company, we are deeply saddened by the unprovoked and unjustified Russian military takeover of Ukraine, the horrific incidents of violence against an independent nation and people, and its dire impact on the entire region, including our team members, their families and friends,” company’s CEO Sid Sijbrandij said back then.

The company is still working with Russian businesses that help its military

At the same time, Russian businesses continue to hold purchase tenders of GitLab services. At least one business, which is also a supplier for the Russian military industry, are among the company’s Russian clients.

• In particular, we are talking about the company Laboratory 50. It cooperates with enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Russia. Among its projects are combat control systems for frigates, platforms for stands and training simulators for the Russian army personnel. You can read more about these projects here.
• At least one of its products, the Mono software package for Astra Linux Special Edition, is made by GitLab. It has a repository on this platform, updates were released regularly (even after the start of the war). It also has a compliance certificate from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation No. 5490 dated 24.11.21. Meaning, it can be used by enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Russia.
• Furthermore, some data from Russian websites about state tenders indicates that state institutions and commercial enterprises are looking for specialists who can work with GitLab. For example, look at the tender from one of the Tatarstan banks (a Russian republic), announced in May of this year. Here is the purchase tender of GitLab Premium from the state-owned enterprise Atomenergoproekt, announced at the beginning of March 2022 (this enterprise is part of the state corporation Rosatom).

The AIN.Capital’s editorial office emphasizes that due to the numerous war crimes that Russian troops have committed and are committing on the territory of Ukraine, GitLab’s management should make the decision to completely withdraw from the Russian and Belarusian markets.