The Insider’s investigators claim Russia continues receiving “unique microcircuits indispensable for missile and drone navigation, internet content filtering, and facial recognition.” These are programmable logic integrated circuits produced by the American companies Intel and AMD. Their export to Russia without an appropriate license was banned as early as 2020, and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, an embargo was imposed on the supply of any microcircuits to Russia. However, customs data show that AMD and Intel have for years turned a blind eye to the export of Xilinx and Altera chips to Russia, which have no domestic use. During the two plus years of the war, similar microcircuits worth at least $336M have been imported into Russia. Among them are microcircuits from the American company Molex, which are installed in Kh-101 cruise missiles. One of these rockets hit the Okhmatdit children’s hospital in Kyiv at the beginning of July.
Despite sanctions, Russia manages to purchase American microcircuits for its military needs.
