Russia's missile production surpasses pre-war levels — NYT

Russia has exceeded its pre-war volume of missile production.

The New York Times reported this, citing its own sources.

Russia managed to increase missile production by circumventing sanctions and export controls.

The Russian Federation purchases the necessary components through Armenia and Türkiye.

American and European regulators have tried to limit chip exports to Russia, but have had trouble stemming the flow through countries linked to Moscow.

According to the publication, the Russians use their special services and the Ministry of Defense to smuggle key components.

"It makes our job harder because there are a lot of countries that it’s legal and totally fine to sell those chips to for legitimate commercial purposes. The problem is when those chips then get diverted and shipped to Russia," said Matthew Axelrod, the Commerce Department's assistance secretary for export enforcement.

Kusti Salm of the Estonian Defense Ministry said that Russia's munitions production now exceeds that of the West by about seven times.

The USA and the European Union have a list of 38 categories of goods whose export to Russia is limited. Nine of these categories, linked to microelectronics for powering missiles and drones, have the highest priority for blocking.

It will be recalled that despite Western sanctions, Russian airlines were able to purchase spare parts worth at least $1.2 billion.