Most of Russia's war chips are made by US and European companies

Russian tanks parade through Red Square during a Victory Day military parade.Photographer: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images/Bloomberg

• Customs data show Russia imported chips made in US, EU in 2023
• Re-exports from third countries weaken sanctions on Russia

Russia imported more than $1 billion of advanced US and European chips last year, despite restrictions intended to stop President Vladimir Putin's military getting hold of technology to fuel its war in Ukraine.

Classified Russian customs service data obtained by Bloomberg show that more than half of imported semi-conductors and integrated circuits in the first nine months of 2023 were manufactured by US and European companies.

They included Intel Corp, Advanced Micro Devices and Analog Devices Inc. as well as European brands Infineon Technologies AG, STMicroelectronics NV and NXP Semiconductors NV. There's no suggestion the companies breached sanctions laws and the data doesn't indicate who exported the technologies to Russia, from where they were shipped and when the goods were manufactured.

The companies said they fully comply with sanctions requirements, ceased business in Russia when war broke out and put in place processes and policies to monitor compliance. They said they work to counter the illicit diversion of goods including with relevant authorities.

The trade underlines the difficulties facing the US and the European Union in choking off supplies of high technology to Russia's war machine in repeated rounds of sanctions since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It has enabled Russia to continue producing battlefield tanks and other weapons including missiles that have rained terror on Ukrainian cities.

The vast majority of restricted technologies enter Russia via re-exports from third countries including China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The US and the EU have been working to block those routes, focusing especially on a list of high priority so-called dual-use and advanced goods found in Russian weapons in Ukraine or that are critical to making them.

The EU is currently working on a new sanctions package and several member states are pushing the bloc to do more to crack down on companies in third countries as well as trades originating in the bloc as part of those proposals.

Distributors handle a significant proportion of the chip industry's sales and they will in turn have multiple vendors. Manufacturers aren't always required to track where their products go after sale to these companies, though some specific military-use chips must have a paper trail.

In all, the customs data showed Russia imported $1.7 billion of chips in the first nine months of last year, including $1.2 billion worth made by a total of 20 companies. Smaller producers, including some from Europe and the US, are likely to account for the remaining $500 million of chips.

The ranking is led by Intel, Analog Devices and AMD, once brands they own such as Intel's Altera and AMD's Xilinx are included. US and European companies in the list had combined revenues of tens of billions of dollars in 2023.

A small number of Chinese manufacturers and Taiwan's Realtek Semiconductor Corp. were also in the top 20, with Russia importing about $17 million of the latter's products. There's no indication the Taiwanese company exported chips directly to Russia or knew that its goods ended up there.

The customs value of trade in high-priority items may have dipped slightly in the latter half of last year, suggesting efforts by the US, EU and Group of Seven allies to enforce sanctions on Russia may be starting to yield results, though it remains above pre-war levels, Bloomberg previously reported.

The Russian customs data indicate that the number of declarations and the total yearly volume by weight of chips deliveries has likely fallen steadily since 2021. That suggests Russia may be paying more for goods as the cost of evading the restrictions rises, or that the type of items Moscow is sourcing has changed since the war began.

The aggregate data doesn't provide a breakdown of what each delivery contains.

Russia stopped publishing official data shortly after its invasion of Ukraine. The Federal Customs Service said in an emailed statement that it temporarily doesn't provide data on foreign trade.

The Kyiv School of Economics reported earlier this month that Russia imported $8.77 billion of battlefield goods between January and October last year, a decline of only 10% compared to the pre-sanctions period, while imports of more broadly defined critical defense-industry components reached $22.23 billion.

"Foreign components continue to be found in the weapons that hit Kyiv and other cities on a daily basis," it said.

Intel said it complies "with all applicable export regulations and sanctions," and its contracts require customers and distributors to abide by the same regulations. The company has "zero tolerance for circumvention of its requirements," it said.

An AMD spokesperson said it operates programs "to prevent and remediate post-sale movement of AMD products into and within illegitimate channels." It would act immediately in response to any information about sales to restricted areas "and cause our distributors and customers to do the same."

Texas Instruments said any shipments of its products into Russia "are illicit and unauthorized." A dedicated team monitors the sale and shipment of its products and the company takes action if it learns distributors and customers don't comply with export control laws.

Analog Devices said it ceased business in Russia, Belarus and occupied regions of Ukraine when the war began."Any post-sanctions shipment into these regions is a direct violation of our policy and the result of an unauthorized resale or diversion of ADI products," the company said.

Infineon said it has "taken extensive measures to stop all direct and indirect shipments to Russia." The company instructed its distributors worldwide to prevent diversion of its products or services in violation of sanctions and acts against any found to be doing trade with Russia, it said.

ST said it has complied with international sanctions since the war began and acted by "reinforcing the compliance requirements for all our sales channels." That included the need for vigilance against sanctions evasion and shipping diversion, it said.

Microchip President Ganesh Moorthy said the company condemns illegal use of its products and "we take care to maintain supply chain integrity," including by screening customers against restricted party lists. It's part of a US industry working group led by the Commerce Department that's discussing ways to combat illicit chip diversion, he said.

Marvell said its distributors and customers are prohibited from re-exporting its products to Russia, and it reviews point-of-sale reports from distributors to confirm compliance. The company sells a small amount of products to distributors who are required to provide compliance reports and "It is possible that some of the distributor's customers may further resell the products to companies to whom Marvell or its distributors have no knowledge, visibility or control," it said.

NXP, which has said previously that it complies with all export controls and sanctions laws, Macom and Realtek didn't reply to requests for comment.

— With assistance from Debby Wu, Ian King, and Jane Lanhee Lee

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by special syndication arrangement.