Most of Russia’s military chips are made by US and European companies – Bloomberg
26 January 2024 09:04
Classified data from the Russian customs service show that more than half of the imported semiconductors and integrated circuits in the first nine months of 2023 were manufactured by US and European companies. This is stated in the material of Bloomberg, reports 
In general, according to the publication, despite the sanctions, in 2023, Russia imported American and European chips worth more than $ 1 billion.
Among the chip manufacturers used by Russians to kill Ukrainians are the American Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices and Analog Devices Inc. as well as the European Infineon Technologies AG, STMicroelectronics NV and NXP Semiconductors NV.
“In general, customs data showed that in the first nine months of last year, Russia imported chips worth $1.7 billion, including $1.2 billion from the top 20 companies,”
– the publication reports.
Intel, Analog Devices, and AMD are at the top of the list, if you include the brands they own, such as Intel’s Altera and AMD’s Xilinx. The top twenty also includes a small number of Chinese manufacturers and Taiwan’s Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
The total cost of customs clearance of such goods at Russian customs slightly decreased in the second half of 2023, which may indicate some success in strengthening sanctions measures.
At the same time, the publication emphasises that “there is no suggestion that these companies have violated sanctions laws”. Almost all of these companies have stated that they not only do not sell their products to Russia, but also carefully monitor their distributors to ensure that they do not re-export to Russia.
The vast majority of technology enters Russia through re-exports from third countries such as China, Turkey and the UAE.
The Kyiv School of Economics reported that from January to October last year, Russia imported $8.77 billion worth of military goods, down only 10% from the corresponding period before the sanctions, while imports of more broadly defined critical components for the defence industry reached $22.23 billion.
