Russian intelligence services use smuggling channels to purchase advanced Western technologies for their military industry.
Western governments are facing difficulties in combating Russian smuggling in order to cut off all its chains and prevent the use of Western technologies by Russian industry and the army, writes The Financial Times.
First of all, Moscow was interested in receiving high-quality integrated circuit boards made of gallium nitride and arsenide, which were manufactured by the French company Ommic. The publication calls these chips “vital for Russian manufacturers such as Istok.”
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According to Le Parisien, a French Defense Ministry spokesman told investigators that the chips were “sensitive strategic technology.”
Moscow is aware that its own production capacity has lagged behind Western and Asian ones since the first microchips were invented in the late 1950s. That is why Russia is interested in purchasing foreign components.
According to Chris Miller, a professor at the Fletcher School of Tufts University, since many microchips are “dual-use” technology and are subject to stricter export controls, Moscow’s strategy means banal smuggling.
“Several decades ago, the Russian government decided that it would rely on smuggled technology for some of its most sensitive defense applications because it would simply be too expensive to produce it domestically and it would be militarily unthinkable to do without it,” Miller said.
He added that this is why it was decided to “rely on the most modern commercial opportunities that were smuggled into Russia.”
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the need for microchips has increased.
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Cells of the smuggling network have been traced to France, Ireland, Germany, Dubai, Singapore, Turkey, Serbia, China and Greece, with some parts dating back to the 1990s. When the network became suspicious about the security of one route, they switched to others.
According to former director of the Department of Strategic Trade and Nonproliferation at the US National Security Council , Thomas Krueger, the Russians are “very good at using distribution networks to create front companies.”
According to him, these smuggling deliveries “definitely did not start from Ukraine.” He said: Russian intelligence plays a huge role in obtaining this kind of technology. They always did. This is what Russians do.”
