Western companies that produce sanctioned goods often fail to take the necessary measures to prevent their products from entering Russia.
Russia's ability to produce new weapons under tough sanctions is explained by the fact that these sanctions can be circumvented, and quite simple.
Bloomberg writes about this.
Bloomberg conducted its own investigation and revealed the scheme by which the Russian system of circumventing sanctions works. According to documents obtained by journalists, the process of purchasing sanctioned goods for end buyers in Russia is “surprisingly simple.” Some Russian importers have created special marketplaces so that their customers can freely see sanctioned goods available for sale and their prices.
According to Bloomberg, there are at least two such marketplaces in Russia that are accessible to “trusted” buyers.
“From Moscow or St. Petersburg, they can buy TI (US chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. – ed.) components with a few clicks of the mouse, placing orders that are fulfilled and delivered through companies outside of Russia,” Bloomberg explains.
In one case reviewed by Bloomberg, a major Russian distributor processed more than 4,000 orders from its Russian customers for hundreds of thousands of Texas Instruments products worth about $6 million. And that’s just for the period from January to August of this year. Almost $4 million of these orders were ultimately made to Russian military companies, while the rest was likely intended for civilian use, the documents show.
The delivery itself occurs through a network of intermediary companies outside of Russia, in transit through Hong Kong or other countries. At the same time, the Russian distributor's markup is only 40% of the manufacturer's price.
Western companies producing sanctioned goods often fail to take the necessary measures to prevent their products from entering Russia. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said that the companies “objectively and knowingly do not prevent Russia from benefiting from the use of their technology.” Although the same Texas Instruments Inc. insists on the opposite and claims that it carefully checks where its chips are sent.
Recall that European diplomats are preparing to change the sanctions regime against Russia.
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