Hong Kong and China provided Russia with $570 million worth of American chips after the invasion began

Despite the US ban on the supply of semiconductors to Russia, many dummy companies have emerged in Hong Kong and China to re-export chips. Among the chips received by Russia after the invasion, there are very expensive ones used in military equipment.

Source. This is stated in the investigation of the Japanese edition of Nikkei Asia.

Between February 24 and December 31, 2022, Russian customs recorded 3,292 transactions of at least $100,000 for the import of semiconductors totaling $740 million.

The vast majority of these supplies were chips from American companies such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Texas Instruments, and many others, Nikkei notes.

At the same time, 1774 transactions with American chips were conducted through Hong Kong or China. They were processed by small and medium-sized firms, some of which were registered after the Russian invasion of Ukraine (you can open a company in Hong Kong for only $19). The total amount of these transactions was $570 million.

During the same period in 2021, only 230 transactions with American chips worth only $51 million passed through China and Hong Kong to Russia.

There were also smaller shipments of up to $100,000, so as a result, from the beginning of the invasion to the end of 2022, Russia imported $1.1 billion worth of semiconductor products, including about $900 million worth of American ones, according to data obtained by Nikkei.

Background. It also became known that a Chinese company exported more than 3,000 tons of copper from the occupied Ukrainian territories.