It’s a story that is not new, but lasting… In the first nine months of 2023, more than half of the semiconductors and integrated circuits imported into Russia were manufactured by American and European companies , reveals Bloomberg in an article published on January 25, 2024. The media obtained classified data from Russian customs services.
“In one of the missiles that hit Kryvyï Rih today, around fifty components – mainly microelectronics – were produced in other countries”, warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 13, 2023. This intervention took place “after the explosion of a Russian missile in the east of the country”recalled Le Monde in an article published on June 16, 2023.
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In total, Russia imported 1.5 billion euros worth of chips in the first nine months of last year. Some 1.1 billion euros correspond to just twenty companies.
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Companies ensure they comply with sanctions
Among them, American companies Intel, Analog Devices and Advanced Micro Devices dominate the top ranking. European brands Infineon Technologies, STMicroelectronics and NXP Semiconductors are also involved. Not forgetting a small number of Chinese manufacturers and the Taiwanese company Realtek.
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However, the companies concerned claim to have stopped their activities in Russia since the start of the war. Intel told Bloomberg it complies “to all regulations and sanctions applicable to export”.
Its contracts also require that customers and distributors comply with the same regulations. AMD also told the media that it manages programs “to prevent and correct after-sales movement of AMD products into and within illegitimate channels”. Texas Instruments, for its part, affirmed that any shipment of its products to Russia “is unlawful and unauthorized.”
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Re-exports from third countries
There is no evidence of bad faith on the part of the manufacturers. “Distributors manage a significant portion of the chip industry’s sales and they have multiple suppliers,” specifies Bloomberg. The majority of restricted technologies would enter Russia via re-exports from third countries, including Turkey, China and the United Arab Emirates.
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The European Union and the United States have already legislated to block some of these routes by focusing on a list of priority technologies found in Russian weapons in Ukraine. The strategy seems to be bearing fruit since “Russian customs data indicates that the number of declarations and the total annual volume by weight of chip shipments have likely declined steadily since 2021”underlines Bloomberg.
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However, efforts remain to be made. The European Union will therefore announce “a thirteenth package of sanctions against Russia on the second anniversary of the Russian invasion”affirmed Europe 1 in an article published on January 19, 2024.
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