Russia imported more than half a billion dollars worth of chips into its territory despite sanctions
Journalists have found that over the past six months, Russia has imported more than half a billion dollars worth of dual-use chips into its territory despite sanctions.
This is stated in a report by the Russian media outlet Verstka.
The journalists analysed classified customs data and found that over the past six months, Russia has imported more than half a billion dollars worth of chips used for weapons production.
In particular, these chips can be used to produce missiles.
Russian authorities have cleared the goods of a number of American companies: "Analog Devices Inc. (worth $98 million), Xilinx ($75 million), Microchip Technology ($42 million), Texas Instruments ($38 million), and goods from Germany's largest semiconductor manufacturer, Infineon ($28 million).
In addition, products from Marvell, Cypress Semiconductor and Atmel were imported into Russia for a total of about $18 million.
These chips are imported by Russian companies, including direct suppliers of the military-industrial complex.
The importers of Analog Devices Inc. are BMK and Testkomplekt, which are suppliers of Rostec companies and are subject to US sanctions. Since the beginning of the year, they have imported components worth almost $20 million.
In addition to chips, machine tools and aircraft components are also being imported into Russia despite the sanctions. For example, since the beginning of this year, Unimatic has freely imported machines from Italian O.M.V. and German Arinstein worth at least five million dollars. And the four largest Russian airlines: "Aeroflot, S7, Pobeda and Rossiya, have imported aircraft parts worth tens of millions of dollars each since the beginning of this year.
In general, as journalists have found, the products of Western companies enter Russia through third countries. The key re-export destinations are China, Hong Kong, the UAE, and Türkiye. Qazaqsatan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Oʻzbekiston also play an important role.
