The New York Times: Western equipment banned by sanctions enters Russia through the ports of Morocco and Turkey

Russian companies, after the introduction of Western sanctions, began to purchase telecommunications equipment and microchips for weapons systems and drones through a network of intermediaries in China, as well as in Morocco and Turkey.

The New York Times writes about this after studying the e-mail leaks of Russian officials, as well as trade documents and records of conversations of employees of commercial companies from the Russian Federation.

These documents, the publication notes, show how Russian companies "are one step ahead of US attempts to cut them off from purchases."

Part of the sanctions equipment purchased in other countries, in particular in China, is transported through Morocco. At Tanger-Med port, equipment and components prohibited for import into Russia, including products from companies Cisco, HP, Juniper, Ericsson and Nokia, are transhipped from ship to ship — this process is called transshipment. This is how the goods reach Russia. A similar trade route passes through Turkey.

Sanctioned equipment is openly sold in Russian specialized online stores, including Nag, OCS Distribution, 3Logic Distribution and 4Telecom stores. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Nag company through intermediaries has purchased about $100 million worth of American high-tech products. $150 million worth of goods were imported from China in 2023 — you can even buy video surveillance technologies.

A similar procurement scheme was used by the Russian telecom company Convex. Having bought data transmission equipment on the Nag site, Convex engineers, as the correspondence shows, set out to install it at the headquarters of Russiaʼs Federal Security Service in Yekaterinburg. There is so much prohibited equipment and components entering the Russian market that buyers even have a choice. Thus, Convex employees discussed purchasing from another supplier, because there it is "cheaper than Nag."

In correspondence, Russian trade officials specify when and how goods will be transshipped, where Russian-flagged ships can be repaired, and tell about the fact that Turkish ports accept payment in rubles.

Cisco declined to comment to reporters. The companies Ericsson, Nokia, Juniper and IBM said that the goods were imported into Russia without their agreement. Representatives of OCS Distribution announced that the trading platform "does not sell products in violation of international sanctions and restrictions."

• Earlier, the Politico publication wrote that Russia buys material for body armor, optical sights and drones from China through "pad companies." All this is used in the war against Ukraine.