Since January 2023, the Russian company I Machine Technology, which is a supplier of weapons manufacturers, has imported equipment from Taiwan worth $20 million.
This is stated in an investigation by The Washington Post (WP), which obtained trade and tax documents.
The Russian company received numerical control machine tools made in Taiwan, which are used for the production of high-tech weapons.
In the first seven months of last year, these machines accounted for almost all of I Machine Technologyʼs imports, and the companyʼs sales during this period were mainly to the Russian defense industry. The company was trying to supply equipment to an enterprise engaged in the mass production of attack drones.
I Machine Technologyʼs largest customer last year was Avangard Moscow Machine-Building Plant, a supplier of missiles for S-400 air defense systems, and another customer runs a company that produces command posts for Russiaʼs Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system, which can carry nuclear weapons.
The machines were sent in 63 separate batches. The first batches worth $4.47 million were sent by a Taiwanese company called I Machine Tools directly to I Machine Technology, whose executive director is Oleksiy Bredykhin. By the end of May, direct deliveries of machines to Russia stopped, all the rest got to the Russian Federation by a detour via Turkey or China.
On the companyʼs since-deleted web pages, Bredikhin described his I Machine Technology as a "Russian branch" of I Machine Tools. The Washington Post notes that the collaboration between the companies has been going on for years.
In a telephone conversation with WP reporters, Bredikhin admitted that he had been importing numerical control machine tools from I Machine Tools for years, but denied that he did so after the sanctions were imposed and that all shipments did not violate export controls because they involved spare parts. When reporters presented him with copies of trading records that contradicted his words, he remained silent.
Meanwhile, Yu Mingjae, who describes himself on LinkedIn as director of sales for I Machine Tools, initially said his company stopped all supplies to Bradyhinʼs firm when Taiwan imposed export restrictions. Journalists also showed him trade records, but he stated that the deliveries allegedly included only spare parts. Yu also suggested that the records could be fake, and added that his company was not a supplier to the Chinese and Turkish companies that sent goods to Russiaʼs I Machine Technology. And Yui says he didnʼt know about I Machine Technologyʼs ties to the Russian army.
In January 2023, Taiwan expanded restrictions on cooperation with Russia, including some numerically controlled machine tools (CMT) in the sanctions list. Taiwanʼs government plans to ban Taiwanese companies from selling their I Machine Technology products over fears they could be used to make weapons.
At WPʼs request, researchers at the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security reviewed data from the investigation and found that several models of machines are likely subject to export controls, but the final decision rests with the Taiwanese government.
Despite global Western sanctions against Russia, it is still able to keep its defense industry operating, thanks in particular to loopholes in the sanctions and lack of control over them. Russia receives critical equipment through China and other countries that have not implemented a sanctions regime.