Russia was able to purchase spare parts for equipment manufactured by the Dutch company ASML. We are talking about machines used to make chip circuits, UNN reports with reference to Reuters.
In 2022-2023, Russian companies purchased spare parts for equipment manufactured by ASML, a leader among European technology companies in the field of modern lithographic systems. We are talking about equipment from the 1990s, in particular, the PAS-5500.
Equipment produced in the 1990s is not considered dual-use goods, i.e., equipment that can potentially be used in the military sphere.
At the same time, such equipment could have been used by Russian companies to produce analog chips, in particular for drones.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, European sanctions blocked the sale of electronic equipment to Russia.
ASML told Reuters that it is complying with the sanctions and that even before they were imposed, the company sold few tools in Russia. They also noted that they do not supply spare parts for their equipment to Russia. At the same time, the journalists found out that the Russian side purchased spare parts through Chinese intermediaries.
It is stated that journalists of the Dutch publication Trouw recorded 170 cases of imports of spare parts to Russian firms.
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Director of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise Oleksandr Ruvin saidthat thanks to the cooperation of the institution's experts and foreign media, three people who were supplying goods for military needs to Russia in circumvention of sanctions were arrested in the Netherlands.
"We are sincerely grateful to the international investigators whose professional activities help to block Russian routes of illegal supply of foreign microelectronics to equip enemy missiles and drones. Among the latter, we have a successful case of cooperation with journalists from the Netherlands. Their investigation led to the arrest of three people as part of a multinational investigation into an international smuggling network that was working to circumvent European sanctions against Russia. Such small local steps help to increase the effectiveness of sanctions pressure on the aggressor country," noted Ruvin.