Willing to pay billions: the Russian Federation continues to buy US processors, regardless of sanctions

It is known that since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Washington has imposed sanctions on the supply of high-tech products to the Russian Federation, including processors, but the aggressor country continues to buy them. Nikkei Asia journalists conducted their own investigation and found out how much Russia receives desired chips for their military equipment. The focus introduces you to the details of the investigation.

Through their informants, journalists of the publication received Russian customs data from the Indian research company Export Genius and studied records on the import of semiconductors from February 24 to December 31, 2022. The records include 3 292 transactions of at least $ 100 thousand each, and 2 358 of them-about 70%-were marked as products of American manufacturers of chips, such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Texas Instruments and many others.

The total cost of these transactions was at least $ 740 million. From these transactions 1774 - about 75% - were sent from Hong Kong or Mainland China, and many shipping sedaries were small or medium -sized companies, some were created after the invasion of Ukraine. The cost of these transactions was $ 570 million. India - the main transship of the sanctions by Russia - supply has increased tenfold.

The most interesting thing is that only 230 large orders were transferred to the Russian invasion across the Indian border. This means that India has now become the main transshipment hub to bypass Russia's sanctions - supply has increased more than ten. A tenfold increase in value is only one of the most interesting aspects of this data. Another thing is prices for some processors.

As part of one of the most expensive agreements, the Hong Kong Information Technology Company has put Intel chips in Russia worth more than $ 10,000 apiece. Such high prices can partially reflect the advanced nature of the chips looking for Russia, experts say. "Rocket and defense systems need a large number of high -level semiconductors," said Nishiyama, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Engineering, specializing in Defense Technologies.

Most often, the Russians were interested in the purchase of Intel and AMD chips. Among the expensive goods listed in export data were Intel and AMD microprocessors, as well as the Xilinx IPP, AMD subsidiary. ESPP is a type of integrated scheme that is overwritten and programmed, widely used in rockets.

Supplies registered in export data also included chips from Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and on Semiconductor-companies known for the production of high-quality semiconductors for industrial applications-and high-yielding radio frequency chip components from Qorvo. By the way, the US Department of Commerce has imposed sanctions on the Sinno Electronics trading company, based on Hong Kong and listed in the table above among illegal chip suppliers.

Nikkei Asia journalists appealed to companies whose chips were discovered in supply lists and stated there that they had not cooperated with Russia for a long time. "Intel has suspended any supply to clients in both Russia and Belarus," the company told reporters. Texas Instruments, Analog Devices and On Semiconductor also assured journalists who do not sell their products to Russia or other sanctions and comply with all rules, including US export controls.

All companies interviewed in one vote state that they will continue to "make additional efforts to combat unauthorized resale", but they add that it is extremely difficult to stop such supply. Although manufacturers of chips and authoritative distributors are faced with close attention from the US authorities, there are also many small traders, including working with one person and recently created false enterprises that are more difficult to control.

Nikkei ASIA investigators spent months spent months tracking some of these little-known trading and false companies. For example, it was possible to enter the Hong Kong distributor AGU Information Technology, which purchases products from Intel and Samsung. According to Russian customs received from the Indian research company Cybex Exim, from September to December 2022, this company has sold more than 60 thousand Intel processors to the Russian company Mistral.

Some of the parties included processors at a price of $ 13,000 apiece. With the help of false companies, or not clean businessmen of Russia, it is possible to bypass the supply of processors. When journalists went to the company at the address indicated on the site, they found a regular residential complex with small offices on the first floors, but not about AGU Information Technology there, of course, no one ever heard.

Intel reported to journalists that there was no company and never had official distributors. Journalists have found another shadow company that supplies chips to Russia - DEXP International from Hong Kong. Typically, a Russian citizen participated in the creation of the company, who had all the actions by May 2022. According to Russian customs, from October to November 2022, Dexp exported the chips from Intel and AMD to the Russian company atlas at least 13 times totaling $ 2. 5 million.

The Russian company Atlas is fully owned by Dmitry Alekseev, who founded the largest DNS Group electronics retail company in Russia. Alekseev is one of a number of Russian millionaires against which Ukraine has imposed personal sanctions. After the invasion of Ukraine, the company ATLAS 235 times imported semiconductors totaling $ 49 million.

The sales chain and supply of chips are as follows: large manufacturers (Intel or AMD) usually transfer their sales to outsourcing to certain and well -known distributors (the most famous include Arrow, Avnet and WPG Holdings), which in turn, follow the practice "Know" Know. their "client" and provide manufacturers with guarantees that they will not deal with companies under sanctions. Sometimes excessive stocks are sold by smaller traders or other companies whose decency is not always possible.

However, in some cases, excess reserves are sold by smaller traders or other companies whose honesty is not always possible. Small trading companies in Hong Kong or Maintenna China can be registered under new names, even if they were caught on trade with Russia. In addition, various fir -firms grow as mushrooms after rain.

Many of the false companies and small outlets that serve as suppliers for secondary sales to Russia and other sub -courses, "AVNET manager, a leading distributor of semiconductors in the United States, told reporters on the conditions of anonymity. It is almost impossible to deal with such traders. "If you find one illegal agreement, they can simply change their name or use the names of their other trading companies," the manager said.

Of course, Washington and Processor Manufacturers are well aware of this situation. "We have already imposed sanctions on more than 500 companies and continue to follow them in cooperation with other countries," said Nikkei ASIA at the US Ministry of Commerce. China and Hong Kong are not included in the GeCC, and therefore it is very difficult to control supply from these regions.

However, the representative of the department added that "not surprisingly" that Russia is referring to countries that are not part of the global coalition from export control, as well as to illegal networks for obtaining semiconductors. The GECC members, led by the United States, are the European Union, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom, but not China and Hong Kong.

The termination of secondary sales of chips to Russia or other sanctions is a difficult task, saying the semiconductor market experts. In spite of the difficulties, some claim that you can do more to close the loopholes that allow Russia to receive chips. "Governments and manufacturers must really check who buys their goods because the supply chain is so globalized that it is impossible to know it," said Diderik KPS, export control export from the Flemish Institute of the World in Belgium.