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mariacallous · 7 months

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Shortly before noon on Aug. 19, 2023, a Russian cruise missile sliced past the golden onion domes and squat apartment blocks of the Chernihiv skyline in northern Ukraine. The Iskander-K missile slammed into its target: the city’s drama theater, which was hosting a meeting of drone manufacturers at the time of the attack. More than 140 people were injured and seven killed. The youngest, 6-year-old Sofia Golynska, had been playing in a nearby park.

Fragments of the missile recovered by the Ukrainian armed forces and analyzed by Ukrainian researchers found numerous components made by U.S. manufacturers in the missile’s onboard navigation system, which enabled it to reach its target with devastating precision. In December, Ukraine’s state anti-corruption agency released an online database of the thousands of foreign-made components recovered from Russian weapons so far.

Russia’s struggle to produce the advanced semiconductors, electrical components, and machine tools needed to fuel its defense industrial base predates the current war and has left it reliant on imports even amid its estrangement from the West. So when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, major manufacturing countries from North America, Europe, and East Asia swiftly imposed export controls on a broad swath of items deemed critical for the Russian arms industry.

Russia quickly became the world’s most sanctioned country: Some 16,000 people and companies were subject to a patchwork of international sanctions and export control orders imposed by a coalition of 39 countries. Export restrictions were painted with such a broad brush that sunglasses, contact lenses, and false teeth were also swept up in the prohibitions. Even items manufactured overseas by foreign companies are prohibited from being sold to Russia if they are made with U.S. tools or software, under a regulation known as the foreign direct product rule.

But as the war reaches its two-year anniversary, export controls have failed to stem the flow of advanced electronics and machinery making their way into Russia as new and convoluted supply chains have been forged through third countries such as Kazakhstan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, which are not party to the export control efforts. An investigation by Nikkei Asia found a tenfold increase in the export of semiconductors from China and Hong Kong to Russia in the immediate aftermath of the war—the majority of them from U.S. manufacturers.

“Life finds a way,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, quoting the movie Jurassic Park. The official spoke on background to discuss Russia’s evasion of export controls.

Some of the weapons and components analyzed by investigators were likely stockpiled before the war. But widely available Russian trade data reveals a brisk business in imports. More than $1 billion worth of advanced semiconductors from U.S. and European manufacturers made their way into the country last year, according to classified Russian customs service data obtained by Bloomberg. A recent report by the Kyiv School of Economics found that imports of components considered critical for the battlefield had dipped by just 10 percent during the first 10 months of 2023, compared with prewar levels.

This has created a Kafkaesque scenario, the report notes, in which the Ukrainian army is doing battle with Western weapons against a Russian arsenal that also runs on Western components.

It is an obvious problem, well documented by numerous think tank and media reports, but one without an easy solution. Tracking illicit trade in items such as semiconductors is an exponentially greater challenge than monitoring shipments of conventional weapons. Around 1 trillion chips are produced every year. Found in credit cards, toasters, tanks, missile systems, and much, much more, they power the global economy as well as the Russian military. Cutting Russia out of the global supply chain for semiconductors is easier said than done.

“Both Russia and China, and basically all militaries, are using a large number of consumer electronic components in their systems,” said Chris Miller, the author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology. “All of the world’s militaries rely on the same supply chain, which is the supply chain that primarily services consumer electronics.”

Export controls were once neatly tailored to keep specific items, such as nuclear technology, out of the hands of rogue states and terrorist groups. But as Washington vies for technological supremacy with Beijing while also seeking to contain Russia and Iran, it has increasingly used these trade restrictions to advance broader U.S. strategic objectives. For instance, the Biden administration has placed wide-ranging prohibitions on the export of advanced chips to China.

“At no point in history have export controls been more central to our collective security than right now,” Matthew Axelrod, the assistant secretary for export enforcement at the U.S. Commerce Department, said in a speech last September. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has described export controls as “a new strategic asset in the U.S. and allied toolkit.”

Russia’s ability to defy these restrictions doesn’t just have implications for the war in Ukraine. It also raises significant questions about the challenge ahead vis-à-vis China.

“The technological question becomes a key part of this story and whether or not we can restrict it from our adversaries,” said James Byrne, the director of open-source intelligence and analysis at the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

In the Russian city of Izhevsk, home to the factory that manufactures Kalashnikov rifles, shopping malls are being converted into drone factories amid a surge in defense spending that has helped the country’s economy weather its Western estrangement. Arms manufacturers have been urged to work around the clock to feed the Russian war machine, while defense is set to account for one-third of the state budget this year.

“We have developed a concept to convert shopping centers—which, before the start of the SMO [special military operation], sold mainly the products of Western brands—to factories for assembly lines of types of domestic drones,” Alexander Zakharov, the chief designer of the Zala Aero drone company, said at a closed event in August 2022, according to the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti. “Special military operation” is what the Russian government calls its war on Ukraine. Zala Aero is a subsidiary of the Kalashnikov Concern that, along with Zakharov, was sanctioned by the United States last November.

Defense companies have bought at least three shopping malls in Izhevsk to be repurposed for the manufacture of drones, according to local media, including Lancet attack drones, which the British defense ministry described as one of the most effective new weapons that Russia introduced to the battlefield last year. Lancets, which cost about $35,000 to produce, wreaked havoc during Ukraine’s offensive last year and have been captured on video striking valuable Ukrainian tanks and parked MiG fighter jets.

Like a lot of Russia’s weapons systems, Lancets are filled with Western components. An analysis of images of the drones published in December by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security found that they contained several parts from U.S., Swiss, and Czech manufacturers, including image processing and analytical components that play a pivotal role in enabling the drones to reach their targets on the battlefield.

“The recurring appearance of these Western products in Russian drone systems shows a keen dependence on them for key capabilities in the drone systems,” the report notes. Lancets are not the only drones found to contain Western components. Almost all of the electronic components in the Iranian Shahed-136 drones, which Russia is now manufacturing with Iranian help to use in Ukraine, are of Western origin, a separate analysis published in November concluded.

Early in the war, the Royal United Services Institute analyzed 27 Russian military systems, including cruise missiles, electronic warfare complexes, and communications systems, and found that they contained at least 450 foreign-made components, revealing Russia’s dependence on imports.

One of the principal ways that Russia has evaded Western export controls has been through transshipment via third countries such as Turkey, the UAE, and neighboring states once part of the Soviet Union. Bloomberg reported last November that amid mounting Western pressure, the UAE had agreed to restrict the export of sensitive goods to Russia and that Turkey was considering a similar move. Kazakh officials announced a ban on the export of certain battlefield goods to Russia in October.

Suspected transshipment is often revealed by striking changes in trade patterns before and after the invasion. The Maldives, an island chain in the Indian Ocean that has no domestic semiconductor industry, shipped almost $54 million worth of U.S.-made semiconductors to Russia in the year after the invasion of Ukraine, Nikkei Asia reported last July.

Semiconductor supply chains often span several countries, with chips designed in one country and manufactured in another before being sold to a series of downstream distributors around the world. That makes it difficult for companies to know the ultimate end user of their products. This may seem odd—until you realize that this is the case for many everyday products that are sold around the world. “When Coca-Cola sells Coca-Cola, it doesn’t know where every bottle goes, and they don’t have systems to track where every bottle goes,” said Kevin Wolf, a former assistant secretary for export administration at the U.S. Commerce Department.

While a coalition of 39 countries, including the world’s major manufacturers of advanced electronics, imposed export restrictions on Russia, much of the rest of the world continues to trade freely with Moscow. Components manufactured in coalition countries will often begin their journey to Moscow’s weapons factories through a series of entirely legal transactions before ending up with a final distributor that takes them across the border into Russia. “It starts off as licit trade and ends up as illicit trade,” said a second senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The further items move down the supply chain, the less insight governments and companies have into their ultimate destination, although sudden changes in behavior of importers can offer a red flag. In his speech last September, Axelrod, the assistant secretary, used the example of a beauty salon that suddenly starts to import electronic components.

But the Grand Canyon of loopholes is China, which has stood by Moscow since the invasion. In the first days of the war, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned that Washington could shut down Chinese companies that ignored semiconductor export controls placed on Russia. Last October, 42 Chinese companies were added to export control lists—severely undercutting their ability to do business with U.S. companies—for supplying Russian defense manufacturers with U.S. chips.

But as the Biden administration carefully calibrates its China policy in a bid to keep a lid on escalating tensions, it has held off from taking Beijing to task. “I think the biggest issue is that we—the West—have been unwilling to put pressure on China that would get China to start enforcing some of these rules itself,” said Miller, the author of Chip Wars.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said: “Due to the restrictions imposed by the United States and key allies and partners, Russia has been left with no choice but to spend more, lower its ambitions for high-tech weaponry, build alliances with other international pariah states, and develop nefarious trade networks to covertly obtain the technologies it needs.

“We are deeply concerned regarding [Chinese] support for Russia’s defense industrial base. BIS has acted to add over 100 [China]-based entities to the Entity List for supporting Russia’s military industrial base and related activities.”

Export controls have typically focused on keeping specific U.S.-made goods out of the hands of adversaries, while economic and financial sanctions have served broader foreign-policy objectives of isolating rogue states and cauterizing the financing of terrorist groups and drug cartels. The use of sanctions as a national security tool grew in wake of the 9/11 attacks; in the intervening decades, companies, government agencies, and financial institutions have built up a wealth of experience in sanctions compliance. By contrast, the use of export controls for strategic ends is relatively novel, and compliance expertise is still in its infancy.

“It used to be that people like me could keep export controls and sanctions in one person’s head. The level of complexity for each area of law is so intense. I don’t know anyone who is truly an export control and sanctions expert,” Wolf said.

Export controls, experts say, are at best speed bumps designed to make it harder for Russia’s defense industrial base to procure Western components. They create “extra friction and pressure on the Russian economy,” said Daniel Fried, who as the State Department coordinator for sanctions policy helped craft U.S. sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russia is now paying 80 percent more to import semiconductors than it did before the war, according to forthcoming research by Miller, and the components it is able to acquire are often of dubious quality.

But although it may be more cumbersome and expensive, it’s a cost that Moscow has been willing to bear in its war on Ukraine.

Western components—and lots of them—will continue to be found in the weapons Russia uses on Ukraine’s battlefields for the duration of the war. “This problem is as old as export controls are,” said Jasper Helder, an expert on export controls and sanctions with the law firm Akin Gump. But there are ways to further plug the gaps.

Steeper penalties could incentivize U.S. companies to take a more proactive role in ensuring their products don’t wind up in the hands of the Russian military, said Elina Ribakova, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “At the moment, they’re not truly motivated,” she said.

Companies that run afoul of sanctions and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. federal law that prohibits the payment of bribes, have been fined billions of dollars. Settlements of export control violations are often an order of magnitude smaller, according to recently published research.

In a speech last month, Axelrod said the United States would begin issuing steeper penalties for export control violations. “Build one case against one of the companies extremely well, put out a multibillion-dollar fine negotiation, and watch everybody else fall in line,” Ribakova said.

And then there’s the question of resources. BIS has an annual budget of just $200 million. “That’s like the cost of a few fighter jets. Come on,” said Raimondo, speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum last December.

The agency’s core budget for export control has, adjusted for inflation, remained flat since 2010, while its workload has surged. Between 2014 and 2022, the volume of U.S. exports subject to licensing scrutiny increased by 126 percent, according to an agency spokesperson. A 2022 study of export control enforcement by the Center for Strategic and International Studies recommended a budget increase of $45 million annually, describing it as “one of the best opportunities available anywhere in U.S. national security.”

When it comes to enforcement, the bureau has about 150 officers across the country who work with law enforcement and conduct outreach to companies. The Commerce Department has also established a task force with the Justice Department to keep advanced technologies out of the hands of Russia, China, and Iran. “The U.S. has the most robust export enforcement on the planet,” Wolf said.

But compared with other law enforcement and national security agencies, the bureau’s budgets have not kept pace with its expanding mission. The Department of Homeland Security has more investigators in the city of Tampa, Florida, than BIS does across the entire country, Axelrod noted in his January speech.

On the other side, you have Russia, which is extremely motivated to acquire the critical technologies it needs to continue to prosecute its war. The Kremlin has tasked its intelligence agencies with finding ways around sanctions and export controls, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson said in a speech last year. “We are not talking about a profit-seeking firm looking for efficiencies,” the second senior U.S. intelligence official said. “There will be supply if there is sufficient demand.”

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ohsalome · 2 years

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Putin Stirs European Worry on Home Appliance Imports Stripped for Arms

A sudden and surprising spike in European exports of washing machines, refrigerators and even electric breast pumps to Russia’s neighbors is raising concerns among officials the trade boom may be helping Vladimir Putin’s war machine in Ukraine.

Armenia imported more washing machines from the European Union during the first eight months of the year than the past two years combined, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the EU’s Eurostat database. Kazakhstan imported $21.4 million worth of European refrigerators through August, more than triple the amount for the same period last year. Kazakh government data meantime show a jump in refrigerators, washing machines and electric breast pumps being shipped into Russia.

Officials in Europe have already said publicly they have seen parts from refrigerators and washing machines showing up in Russian military equipment such as tanks since its invasion of Ukraine. People familiar with the assessments said it was quite possible that components and microchips from other household goods were being used for military purposes, too, even if mostly in relatively low-grade equipment.

(source)

#russia #war in ukraine #sanctions #european union

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l-in-c-future · 3 days

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To understand which assumed transshipment points could be used to facilitate trade with Russia, it is important to first understand the impact sanctions have had on Russia’s ability to import goods from other countries. S&P Global Market Intelligence extracted data from customs agents and national statistical authorities to highlight individual country exports to Russia.

To date, Hong Kong has not sanctioned Russia and remains one of Russia’s key trade partners for goods relating to electronic and communications equipment, specifically semiconductors and microchips

The largest exponential increase in exports of Tier 1 items to Russia came from Armenia, India, Turkey and Kazakhstan. In 2023, Armenia and Kazakhstan exported approximately $25.5 million and $18.3 million worth of Tier 1 items, respectively, whereas in 2021, there was almost no reported trade. Goods classified under "HS Code 854239: Electronic integrated circuits" were the most exported in 2023.

#Russian sanction #illicit trade flows #ukraine war #dual purpose items

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swissforextrading · 20 days

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The mystery of Switzerland’s surging imports of Uzbek and Kazakh gold

Switzerland’s imports of gold originating in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have boomed since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. Trade data and expert analyses suggest some could be surreptitiously coming from Russia in violation of international sanctions. SWI swissinfo.ch unravels the gold route from the two Central Asian nations to Switzerland via the United Kingdom. Swiss purchases of the precious metal from the two post-Soviet states took off in late 2021, just before Russia began its assault on Ukraine, an analysis of customs and related data by SWI swissinfo.ch shows. The trend has accelerated since then, raising concerns that Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are being used to evade sanctions intended to punish Moscow and helping Putin finance his war machine. “Now that Russia cannot freely export gold, there is a high risk that these two countries are being used to send gold to the UK and to Switzerland in order to be then sent out into the world ... https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/multinational-companies/the-mystery-of-switzerlands-surging-imports-of-uzbek-and-kazakh-gold/84207442?utm_source=multiple&utm_campaign=swi-rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_content=o (Source of the original content)

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palmoilnews · 1 month

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Ukraine boosts oilseed meal exports, with EU, China as main consumers Exports to China dropped to 179,000 tonnes, while shipments to the European Union rose to 102,000 tonnes in July, it said. "The EU has a protective import duty on Russian and Belarusian products, as a result of which the prospects of Ukrainian oilseed meal on the European market may improve noticeably," the agency said. The EU did not import sunflower meal from Russia... MOSCOW. Aug 14 (Interfax) - Ukrainian oilseed meal exports 12% in July year-on-year to 290,000 tonnes, Ukrainian media reported citing to the APK-Inform information and analytical agency. Ukraine's exports of oilseed meal in July were the highest for this month in the last four seasons, but is 28% smaller than in June, the agency said. Exports to China dropped to 179,000 tonnes, while shipments to the European Union rose to 102,000 tonnes in July, it said. "The EU has a protective import duty on Russian and Belarusian products, as a result of which the prospects of Ukrainian oilseed meal on the European market may improve noticeably," the agency said. The EU did not import sunflower meal from Russia in July and bought it from Ukraine (78%) and Argentine (14%) in July, the agency said citing European Commission data. Sunflower meal was imported from Kazakhstan (4%) for the first time in a long time, it said. The share of Russian sunflower meal imports stood at nearly 27% in the 2023-2024 season (July 2023 - June 2024) and 22% in the 2022-2023 season.

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exim-pedia · 2 months

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Top 10 Imports of Russia: A Comprehensive Guide

Russia, a country renowned for its vast natural resources and industrial equipment manufacturing, stands as the 8th largest economy in the world. With a strong reliance on both domestic manufacturing and international trade, import of Russia goods worth US$ 303.8 billion in 2023-24, marking a 10% increase from the previous year. This significant import volume positions Russia as the 30th largest importer globally.

In this blog, we will delve into the top imports of Russia, key trade partners, and the import relationship between Russia and India, providing a comprehensive overview based on the latest trade data.

Overview of Russia's Imports: 2023-24

Total Import Value: US$ 303.8 billion (10% increase from last year)

Total Shipments: 124.1k

Number of Importers: 14,665 global importers

Number of Suppliers: 10,650 Russian suppliers

Top 10 Imports of Russia

Machinery, Nuclear Reactors, Boilers

Import Value: US$ 54.56 billion

Share of Total Imports: 28.58%

Top Import Destinations: Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany

Shipments: 190.6k

Electric and Electronic Equipment

Import Value: US$ 36.95 billion

Share of Total Imports: 19.38%

Top Import Destinations: United States, Vietnam, Uzbekistan

Shipments: 202.1k

Vehicles

Import Value: US$ 26.85 billion

Share of Total Imports: 14.09%

Top Import Destinations: India, Uzbekistan, United States

Shipments: 883.2k

Pharmaceutical Products

Import Value: US$ 13.85 billion

Share of Total Imports: 7.25%

Top Import Destinations: Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Slovenia

Shipments: 182k

Plastic and Plastic Articles

Import Value: US$ 12.75 billion

Share of Total Imports: 6.65%

Top Import Destinations: Vietnam, China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore

Shipments: 94.8 million

Optical, Photo, Technical, and Medical Apparatus

Import Value: US$ 8.79 billion

Share of Total Imports: 4.57%

Top Import Destinations: Uzbekistan, United States, India, Belgium

Shipments: 181.7k

Articles of Iron or Steel

Import Value: US$ 6.59 billion

Share of Total Imports: 3.39%

Top Import Destinations: India, Vietnam, China

Shipments: 85.1 million

Iron and Steel

Import Value: US$ 5.93 billion

Share of Total Imports: 3.12%

Top Import Destinations: India, China, Germany, Mexico, Japan

Shipments: 24.1 million

Organic Chemicals

Import Value: US$ 5.85 billion

Share of Total Imports: 3.08%

Top Import Destinations: Germany, India, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy

Shipments: 4.3k

Fruits and Nuts

Import Value: US$ 5.44 billion

Share of Total Imports: 2.86%

Top Import Destinations: Germany, Poland, Switzerland

Shipments: 31.3k

Major Import Partners of Russia

China

Import Value: US$ 76.92 billion

Germany

Import Value: US$ 28.35 billion

United States

Import Value: US$ 19.26 billion

Belarus

Import Value: US$ 18.54 billion

Korea

Import Value: US$ 15.22 billion

France

Import Value: US$ 13.33 billion

Italy

Import Value: US$ 12.67 billion

Japan

Import Value: US$ 10.60 billion

Kazakhstan

Import Value: US$ 8.42 billion

Turkey

Import Value: US$ 7.59 billion

Russia's Imports from India: 2023-24

Total Import Value: US$ 2.5 billion

Total Shipments: 6.2k

Number of Importers: 625 Russian importers

Number of Exporters: 382 Indian exporters

Major Imports: Packaged medicaments, crustaceans, large flat-rolled stainless steel

Growth Rate: 19.2% increase over the past seven years

Conclusion

Russia's import landscape is diverse, encompassing everything from machinery and electronic equipment to pharmaceutical products and organic chemicals. The country's reliance on international trade is evident from its extensive list of import partners and the significant volume of imports. As Russia continues to innovate and develop, its import needs will remain crucial to sustaining its economic growth and meeting domestic demands.

For exporters looking to tap into the Russian market, understanding the main imports and key trade partners is essential. Eximpedia.app offers comprehensive data and insights to help you navigate the complexities of international trade with Russia.

#globaltradedata #importofRussia #topimportsofRussia #relationshipbetweenRussiaandIndia #eximpedia #Russia'simport

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seairexim · 6 months

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Kazakhstan, in Eurasia's heart, acts as a key link between European and Asian markets. Its strategic position and rich resources highlight its role in global trade, with its trade data revealing significant opportunities for businesses and researchers. Explore the Blog "Insider Secrets to Understanding Kazakhstan Trade Data Transactions" Now!

#global trade data #export #import #international trade #trade data #trade market #global market #import data #import export data #custom data #kazakhstan trade data #kazakhstan import export data #kazakhstan export data #kazakhstan customs data #kazakhstan

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fangfeiyifei · 4 months

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2023 Wholesale Bluetooth speakers import and export data

In 2023, the U.S. imported $3.038 billion in wholesale Bluetooth speakers, with $1.241 billion (41%) from China. The EU imported $1.588 billion, $1.177 billion (74%) from China. Australia imported $294 million, with $205 million (70%) from China. China’s exports of wholesale Bluetooth speakers reached $6.545 billion, primarily to the U.S., EU, Russia, India, Brazil, Vietnam, the UK, Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Australia, South Korea, Malaysia, UAE, Mexico, Canada, Singapore, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria.