Russia imported high-tech equipment from Taiwan - WP
Since January 2023, the Russian company I Machine Technology, a supplier to arms manufacturers, has imported $20 million worth of equipment from Taiwan, which is a strategic partner of the United States.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by Ekonomichna Pravda with reference to The Washington Post (WP).
The newspaper cites the words of I Machine Technology CEO Alexei Bredikhin at a corporate event in June on the Black Sea coast of Russia.
"I especially want to congratulate our friends from distant Taiwan," he said in a video of the event posted online. "We have been working very hard for almost a year now," Bredikhin said.
It is noted that computer-controlled machines are used for complex and precise production, which is critical in many industries, including weapons production.
Components made in Taiwan accounted for almost all of the Russian company's imports in the first seven months of 2023, while the company's sales during this period were mainly to the Russian defense industry.
The newspaper adds that the Russian company's management tried, in particular, to direct these efforts to ensure mass production of attack drones in Russia.
WP reminds that Taiwan is a strategic partner of the United States. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Taiwan imposed restrictions on exports to Russia.
Former senior U.S. Commerce Department official Kevin Wolfe, who previously headed the U.S. export control agency, said the shipments identified by the publication likely violated bans imposed by Taiwan and the West in January 2023 on technology sales to Russia in response to the war in Ukraine.
He said the shipments "should definitely" be a priority for investigation by Taiwanese law enforcement.
"You have tools that are very important for the production of military products. You have a lot of connections with military end users and users. You have connections with drone manufacturers. You have a large amount of dollars. That is why export controls were introduced against Russia. This is a classic law enforcement priority issue," Wolf said.
These shipments demonstrate how, despite the global restriction regime, the Russian defense industry remains robust thanks to sanctions loopholes.
Critical goods continue to flow directly to Russia, as well as through China and other countries that are not subject to the restrictions, WP adds.
"On the one hand, we appreciate the efforts of our partners to break Russian supply chains. At the same time, this is clearly not enough," said Vladyslav Vlasiuk, an adviser to President Zelenskyy.
The machines were shipped in 63 separate batches, the newspaper found out.
The first batches, worth $4.47 million, were sent directly to Bredikhin's company from the Taiwanese company I Machine Tools.
In January 2023, Taiwan expanded its restrictions on cooperation with Russia by adding some computer numerical control (CNC) machines to the sanctions list. The Taiwanese government plans to ban Taiwanese companies from selling their products to I Machine Technology out of concern that they could be used for weapons production.
Despite the global Western sanctions against Russia, it can still keep its defense industry operational, in part due to loopholes in sanctions and insufficient control over them. Russia receives critical equipment through China and other countries that have not imposed sanctions.
