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focus from punishing Russia to simply making the existing sanctions work more effectively.
Although the majority of the technology imports are made by countries not participating in the sanctions, there is also a significant share of Western-made technology. Products from companies such as US-based chipmaker Analog Devices and and Texas Instruments play a promient role and have been found in Russian missiles. Analog's imports to Russia increased from $123mn in 2021 to $269mn in the first nine months of 2023.
The FT earlier reported that at the end of last year, hundreds of Western companies confessed to ignoring sanctions and continuing to export to Russia, although none of the companies were named.
The companies confessed as part of the Western crack down on sanctions dodging, in the hope of avoiding more severe punishment for trying to keep their trade with Russia secret.
Highlighting the problems of controlling the trade, Analog Devices said that it had ceased all sales into Russia and Belarus, instructed distributors to halt shipments to these regions, and emphasised that any post-sanctions shipment into these areas would be a direct violation of their policy. But the distribution daisy-chain that Russia has set up makes it almost impossible for a producer to know where their products will end up after the they have delivered them to the first counter-party.
“Improved export controls enforcement will ultimately not be possible without buy-in from the private sector, especially coalition-based producers of goods needed for Russia’s military industry. Any effective control of the supply chain has to begin with the initial sale of an item to a distributor as it becomes increasingly complicated to trace its physical whereabouts and impede any illicit activities post-sale,” says KSE.
The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE)
is a bne IntelliNews media partner and a leading source of economic analysis and information on Ukraine. This content originally appeared on www.kse.ua.
Tens of thousands of Russians freeze as hot water pipes burst around the country
bne IntelliNews
Tens of thousands of people across Russia are currently living with no heating or hot water following an unprecedented wave of infrastructure failures.
Even large cities like Novosibirsk and Vladivostok, as well as the suburbs of Moscow, have experienced burst hot-water mains, ruptured heating pipelines, and crumbling municipal infrastructure. These incidents have escalated since the beginning of 2024, with temperatures dropping to -30 degrees and below in some parts of the country.
While such failures are not a new phenomenon, considering Russia's frigid winters and aging Soviet-era infrastructure, they are now occurring at a significant political moment, just before a presidential election and amid growing fatigue over the protracted invasion of Ukraine.
As temperatures plummet, the deteriorating state of municipal services, particularly heating, poses a significant political challenge for the authorities. With much of the government's budget redirected towards the war effort, many local authorities have experienced a reduction in funding, limiting their capacity to promptly address any infrastructure issues.
The surge in bursting pipes coincides with Russia's efforts to shield the population from any adverse effects of the war in Ukraine. Until recently, the average Russian had not experienced a significant impact on their life due to the conflict. However, as cash-strapped local governments grapple with the urgent need to address various problems, concerns may arise that residents will perceive the so-called Special Operation as a drain on resources.
The Kremlin itself has admitted that a significant portion of Russia's infrastructure is ageing, but it has attributed the recent outages to unusually cold weather.
Speaking on the subject, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that "everyone did everything that could be done" to address the issue and expressed sympathy for those who had to endure "sitting in the cold without electricity."
"Despite all titanic efforts to upgrade all the housing and utilities systems, a certain part of them remains in a rather dilapidated state,” Peskov said. “These programmes will continue, but it is impossible to renew all pipes and all housing and utilities systems in 10-15 years. Of course, these programmes are time-consuming," he said.
In Podolsk, a city in the Moscow Region, 180 high-rise buildings lost power due to a burst heating main at the Klimovsk Specialised Ammunition Plant. Locals took to the streets, demanding the restoration of power and the arrest of the deputy head of Podolsk, Roman Ryazantsev. In Elektrostal, also in the Moscow Region, residents stared fires on the street as temperatures inside apartments dropped as low as -18 degrees Celsius.
www.bne.eu