Editor’s note — This case study is a window into how we do some of the work we do. We are presenting it partially finished, as it is mostly (at this point) based on other people’s research, and we have reached a dead end. It may or may not be anything actionable or big enough to interest a journalist or partner. Despite all these caveats, it remains an interesting case study of a Russian industrial weakness, highlighting its dependency on the Free World, one way or another.
Cellulose acetate is a material used to make playing cards, eyeglass frames, photographic film, and cigarette filters. It is made by reacting plant cellulose with acetic acid and acetic anhydride in the presence of sulfuric acid, followed by washing with water to remove the sulfate and dissolving the resulting substance in acetone, an organic solvent.
Cellulose acetate was first produced in the mid-19th century, and today the global market for the substance is around $6 billion. Here is another fact about cellulose acetate: Russia needs it to produce some important solid rocket fuel.
And Russia can't seem to produce it itself.
The Perm Powder Plant wants French cellulose acetate
This came to our attention through the work of the Ukrainian NGO StateWatch and their excellent research on how Russia produces the solid rocket fuels used in the “Kalibr” cruise missile and the “Nudol” anti-satellite missile, among others. Their research and some leaked Russian documents reveal that the Perm Powder Plant, which produces rocket fuel and other explosives, requires imports of cellulose acetate. In March 2025, it signed a contract with a Russian intermediary to provide $975,000 of cellulose acetate produced by the Swiss company Cerdia, which the Perm Powder Plant would use as a binding material for its rocket fuel. The contract specified that the cellulose acetate was to be of French origin. Another document lists that it received 30 tons of cellulose acetate as of 2025.
Cerdia did not respond to the journalists who inquired about its involvement in Russia by the time that stories about this traffic were published in April 2026. We haven't seen any subsequent responses or PR activity from Cerdia, but we may have missed it.
The French plant closed in 2020
One thing we would like to add to StateWatch’s excellent research is a wrinkle in the Russian plans to acquire this French-origin cellulose acetate: it does not exist, not anymore. Cerdia shut down its French cellulose acetate plant in Roussillon in 2020. Since then, Cerdia has only produced cellulose acetate in two locations: Freiburg, Germany, and Kingsport, Tennessee!
Russian shipping data shows, sure enough, in 2020 shipments of cellulose acetate from France to Russia wind down (as the French plant gets shut down), and shipments from Kingsport, Tennessee begin.
Now, does this mean that cellulose acetate from Kingsport, Tennessee, made it into weapons that were fired at Ukraine? Yes, probably, but we can't prove that, not yet, and maybe not ever.
Shipments from Kingsport to Russia stopped in July 2022, and, besides, the volume of cellulose acetate used to produce Russian rocket fuel is a small fraction of that used to produce cigarette filters in Russia. Russians love to smoke, and this is the main reason cellulose acetate is imported to Russia.
To give you some idea of the volumes involved: one of the documents discussing a 2025 contract for cellulose acetate for the Perm Powder Plant, revealed by StateWatch, is for 30 tons of the stuff. Based on the language in the contract, this appears to be a year’s supply or a significant portion thereof. The two main Russian companies that made cigarette filters from the cellulose acetate from France and Kingsport, Tennessee, received individual shipments of between 100 and 400 tons.
China took over, but not entirely
After July 2022, the Chinese company Acetek Material Co. Ltd. of Shandong took over exports of cellulose acetate to Cerdia’s former customers in Russia (though Cerdia continued to export other materials needed to make cigarette filters).
So, case closed — the Chinese have replaced the US again? Almost, but not quite.
Acetek Material Co. Ltd. is a Chinese company, but its parent company, Jinan Acetate Chemical Co. Ltd., is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Even if it is the case that the Russians can get everything they need from China, and China can get all the ingredients it needs to make stuff, at least some Chinese companies still have to look to the free world for capital and to protect their investments.
Normally, the insistence on “French origin” cellulose acetate in the Russian contracting documents would send us into a flurry of research to figure out how this product is smuggled into Russia. Given that Cerdia no longer produces cellulose acetate in France, this is probably a remnant of an old contract, with the Russians repeatedly reusing the same supply contract and changing the dates, amounts, and price as needed. Either that, or there is some corruption involved, and maybe some Russian middleman is passing off low-quality Chinese cellulose acetate for the real thing.
Let’s hope so — the more Russian missiles that misfire, the better.
Russia is an industrial paper tiger
Russia is an industrial paper tiger. It requires European machine tools to make its weapons, chemicals from South Korea and China, and materials and technology from many countries that the Russian government considers enemies.
Russia can't even make cigarette filters on its own.
Even if we ignore its horrible politics and human rights record, it’s a basket case country and not a suitable partner for a superpower, or any developed nation, for that matter. Those who insist otherwise are either misinformed or have other motives.