balk.hu<https://balk.hu/en/2025/12/28/michal-strnad-csg-szerbia-nato-ukrajna/> Serbia in the Shadow of NATO: Michal Strnad's Balkan Plans Published: 16 hours have passed since then, release date: 2025.12.28. 8–10 minutes ________________________________
Listen to the article ________________________________ Czech “arms tycoon” Michal Strnad’s company is constantly expanding, acquiring companies, and has been particularly thriving since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. It is present in the United States, Germany, Ukraine, and – surprisingly – Serbia. “Czech businessman is massively supplying ammunition to Ukraine, and soon drones as well,” writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ<https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/unternehmen/milliardaer-michal-strnad-will-ruestungsfabriken-in-ukraine-bauen-19573135.html>), according to which Serbian factories play an important role in the empire of the young Czech arms manufacturer Michal Strnad. “It has only been a year and a half since the Czech-Slovak Group (CSG) moved into its new headquarters in Prague,” writes FAZ. “The eight-story, rectangular building made of red brick and glass, with a strict facade of twelve windows one above the other, is already starting to feel cramped. That’s how fast the empire of 33-year-old Michal Strnad, one of the richest men in the Czech Republic, is growing.” In November, CSG acquired 51% of the Belgrade-based MUST Solutions, a company that produces aircraft engines. The company is planned to work for the military industry and will also establish a drone development center in Serbia. CSG also owns the munitions factory "14 October" in Kruševac. The Czech defense industry holding's Balkan expansion began in Serbia by chance. The group saw that Belgrade's MUST Solutions and the related 14. Oktobar industrial infrastructure offered a technological and workforce base on which to build a long-term strategy. Unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly used in the military industry, their importance in the Ukrainian war is growing every day (Source: Blic) CSG management emphasized that through the Serbian plants, the company group will not only gain new production capacities, but also development areas that will play a key role in future military technology systems. The group's environment stated that the acquisition of MUST Solutions was particularly important because the company specialized in drone engines and special aeronautical components, for which demand on the international market had increased dramatically in recent years. CSG executives also indicated that Serbia's 14th October industrial zone – which was a historical center of Yugoslav heavy industry – provides an ideal terrain for modernization and rapid expansion of production capacities. The acquisition of MUST Solutions fits well into CSG's strategy: the group has become one of the most important defense industry players in Europe through an aggressive acquisition policy in recent years. The holding's owner, Michal Strnad, a Czech businessman in his early thirties, has now become one of the most influential arms industry players on the continent. Recovery after Russian aggression The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung describes the career of this particularly important Czech military industrialist, who took over the business from his father at a young age. The father mainly bought old Soviet military equipment, then modernized and resold it, while the younger Strnad took the business to a much higher level. “Central Europe's largest gunsmith flourished especially after the Russian attack – it maintained old Russian tanks, howitzers, armored vehicles and supplied ammunition,” the newspaper writes. Explosives and ammunition are manufactured at the company's plants in Slovakia, Spain, Greece and Serbia, and new production lines are in preparation in the United States. The article even mentions that Strnad has a stake in the luxury Four Seasons hotel near Charles Bridge in Prague, owns the Viktoria football club in Plzen, finances the Czech Olympic team, and has charitable organizations. His wealth is estimated at more than ten billion euros. The young Czech arms magnate The German press, especially the FAZ, presents the young Czech arms manufacturer in an incredibly favorable light, and this is almost a textbook example of how a regional industrial player becomes a “European strategic hero” in the media. The German press is rarely so enthusiastic, but in the case of the Czech arms magnate, economic and political interests point in the same direction. Russia claims that Serbia continues to export weapons to Ukraine (Source: Time<https://vreme.com/vesti/srpski-pogoni-ceskog-fabrikanta-oruzja-procvat-naoruzavanjem-ukrajine/>) The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) has covered the rise of our "hero" on several occasions, and has particularly highlighted that Serbian production capacities form an important link in CSG's global system. According to the German newspaper, the group's Serbian plants - including MUST Solutions<https://mustsolution.com/> – they play a significant role in the production of ammunition and military equipment for Ukraine, which obviously makes the Russians angry. The FAZ narrative is clear: Strnad is the “young, quiet arms magnate” who, building on Central European industrial traditions, has become one of Europe’s most important military suppliers. The German press often presents him as one of the solutions to the continent’s ammunition shortages, especially for the Bundeswehr and NATO allies. The German army has been struggling with a severe ammunition shortage for years. After the full takeover of the 140-year-old Italian Fiocchi in April and the acquisition of the American Vista/Kinetic Group last year, CSG has a particularly large capacity and can deliver quickly. This perfectly aligns with German strategic interests. According to FAZ, in the first three quarters of this year, the Czech company almost doubled its sales revenue, reaching 4,5 billion euros. Discovering the sky “Strnad, who is married and the father of two children, is the world’s largest small-caliber ammunition manufacturer (on the Western side) and one of the leading artillery manufacturers. The EU’s ammunition initiative for Ukraine would hardly have been as successful without his involvement,” the newspaper writes. The FAZ and other German newspapers sing his praises because Strnad's activities are in line with German and European strategic interests: stable ammunition supplies, rapid capacity expansion, and a reliable Central European partner. CSG also produces armored vehicles, howitzers, radars, and is now increasingly “exploring the skies.” FAZ also writes about its subsidiary called Avianer, which also has a branch in Belgrade. Pavel Čechal, head of the Avianer division, told FAZ that the wartime conditions in Ukraine represent "a rapidly growing, huge potential for drone-based systems." AviaNera (or Avianer) is a relatively newly established company within the Czech defense industry holding company Czechoslovak Group (CSG), which focuses on the development and production of unmanned aerial systems (UAS / drones). According to the newspaper, CSG already has flight control electronics and missiles, and they have begun to conquer the area of engines with the purchase from Belgrade. Čechal is not afraid of a decline in demand if (by some miracle) a ceasefire were to occur in Ukraine, which it will, he believes, drones will remain important and will become even more important in both the military and civilian sectors. CSG's environment emphasized that the presence in the Balkans was not only a production issue, but also a geopolitical position-building issue. The company's leaders saw that Serbia's industrial traditions, skilled workforce, and favorable investment climate would allow CSG to implement technological developments that would be much more costly in other European countries. Michal Strnad and CSG's expansion into the Balkans is an integral part of the strategy that has made the group one of Europe's most important military industrial players. The German press – especially the FAZ – presents it in an extremely positive light because CSG's activities coincide with German and European security policy interests. A story from the courtyard of 14. Oktobar Serbian media recalled that when CSG experts first visited the 14. Oktobar site, the rusty, half-disassembled machines were still standing in the yard of the old Yugoslav factory giant. Locals said that the visitors “walked through the halls in silence,” and talked about how the old industrial infrastructure “can provide a surprisingly good foundation” for modern manufacturing. One CSG engineer reportedly said, “This isn’t about starting from scratch. This is about reviving something that already worked.” This sentence well summarizes CSG's Balkan strategy: they are not building new factories, but reviving old industrial centers and installing modern military technology on them. -- http:www.antic.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SERBIAN NEWS NETWORK" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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