After the collapse in Russia in 1990, many factories that produced parts for military planes and rockets with very high-tech machinery almost shut down, but some people were smart enough to use the machinery for other things, like rims. And since aluminum is there in abundance and cheap, the rims are cheap as well. A forged rim for 150 Euro, before paint, how does that sound? Many foreign companies producing rims made agreements with russian factories.
That's the short version.
The main factory, mentioned on this page, supplied rims to companies like BBS, Borbet, also made rims for competition bikes in Japan, and for formula 1. The companies buy those rims, put their labels on them and sell them with quite a profit.
