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The US Treasury Department has seriously taken up the study of ways to circumvent anti-Russian sanctions through the supply chains of leading American technology companies .
Although the manufacturers themselves say that they are trying to strictly adhere to export control measures, more than half of the semiconductors and integrated microcircuits that entered Russia in the first nine months of 2023 were produced by American and European companies, according to the confidential database of the Russian Customs Service, which found itself at the disposal of Bloomberg.
Components that can be used in weapons sometimes reach Russia through subsidiaries of Western companies that have factories in other countries, or distributors.
As a US official told Bloomberg, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is investigating the activities of several US and foreign companies. Together with specialists from the Ministry of Finance, the Department of Commerce and the Department of State, representatives of OFAC work at the headquarters of American microelectronics manufacturers.
According to officials on both sides of the Atlantic, officials in the United States and Europe are also analyzing the activities of the "subsidiaries" and distributors. In particular, the authorities want manufacturers to be vigilant at all stages of the journey their products take and to check that all participants in the supply chain also comply with the restrictions.
Together with the companies, government experts are analyzing data on more than 600 distributors who appear to be continuing to sell banned products to Russia to cut them out of supply chains, a US official told Bloomberg. Despite the restrictions, last year Russia imported more than $1 billion worth of modern US and European chips.
Chips and other electronic components are among several dozen types of products that are primarily targeted by the US and Europe. in recent months.