Russian military suppliers exploit loophole to source US microchips
Russian suppliers to the military-industrial complex exploited a loophole to order microchips from Texas Instruments (TI) despite international sanctions, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 9.
Russian distributors allegedly integrated TI’s online store into their trading platforms, enabling customers in Russia to access semiconductor inventories and prices, and place orders.
These orders were reportedly fulfilled through intermediaries outside Russia.
Websites like getchips and altchips, blocked in the U.S. and Europe but accessible in Russia, were primarily used to facilitate these transactions.
The availability of TI products on these platforms mirrored data from TI’s proprietary application programming interface (API), suggesting Russian distributors accessed the company’s technical coordinates to process orders.
Between August 2023 and August 2024, a large Russian distributor reportedly processed over 4,000 orders for thousands of TI products worth nearly $6 million.
Around $4 million in orders were for Russian military firms. Goods were routed through Hong Kong and other intermediaries before reaching Russia, with distributors applying a 40% markup to cover shipping and payment costs.
Russian military companies rely on Western-made components for their operations, including domestically made Shahed-type drones used in attacks on Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed on Nov. 2 that Russia launched over 2,000 such drones in October, which required more than 170,000 imported components, including microchips, microcontrollers, and processors.
Zelensky urged Western allies to tighten sanctions against suppliers of these components, emphasizing that Russia continues to evade restrictions using shell companies and networks involving countries such as China, Iran, and North Korea.
"These parts are supplied from abroad, unfortunately, by companies in China, Europe, and America — a multitude of small but significant contributions to Russia’s ongoing terror," Zelensky said.
Asami Terajima
