American chips in Russian weapons: manufacturers explain how russia circumvents sanctions
13 September 2024 09:21
More than 70% of the components found in Russian weapons were manufactured by American companies. This was stated by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal during a Senate hearing, citing documents handed over to him by the Ukrainian authorities, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports citing Voice of America.
The hearing, titled “Technologies of US companies that power the Russian military machine”, was dedicated to American technologies used by the Russians in their weapons. They featured testimony from the vice presidents of major US technology companies.
Statistics show that after Ukraine’s allies banned the supply of microchips to Russia in 2022, Russia’s trade in these goods with Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Georgia has increased, Senator Richard Blumenthal said at a hearing in the US Senate this week.
Vice presidents of ADM, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, and Intel Corporation testified in the US Senate.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal chaired the hearing and reported on documents received from the Ukrainian authorities, which listed about 25,000 components recovered from Russian weapons on the battlefield.
“The majority of these components – 73% – come from American companies. In particular, 1,005 (40%) are from your companies,” Blumenthal said, addressing the witnesses.
Representatives of the companies stressed that they strictly comply with the sanctions and implement additional security measures, even if not required by law, to prevent their products from reaching Russian weapons.
According to company representatives, most of the components found in Russian weapons on the battlefield are basic microchips that are not subject to export restrictions and were produced before Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine.
During the hearing, Blumenthal called on companies to strengthen their supplier due diligence and on the US government to take additional measures to strengthen export restrictions.
