Ilya Vedmedenko20:20, 18.02.26

In 2024, about ten thousand Russian companies became importers of sanctioned products worth a total of over $22 billion.

Experts have identified unsanctioned Russian companies that purchase components and equipment for the needs of the Russian military-industrial complex . This is reported by The Insider , which is the author of the study. 

Having received data on transactions in the domestic market of the Russian Federation and comparing them with customs data, experts found out which participants in foreign trade activities concluded agreements with leading military-industrial complex enterprises in 2024.

In total, in the year before last, about ten thousand Russian companies became importers of sanctioned products worth a total of over $22 billion. 

Of these, over two thousand companies turned out to be contractors of leading military-industrial complex enterprises. According to available data, these contractors made direct deliveries to leading military-industrial complex companies worth over 80 billion rubles (about 1 billion dollars). 

The total volume of sanctioned goods imported into Russia by defense industry contractors amounted to over $5 billion (only supplies worth over $20,000 were taken into account). However, not all products are necessarily consumed by the military-industrial complex – a significant part is also in demand in the civilian sector.

A significant part of the sanctions components cannot be replaced with analogues, so their absence would become critical for the Russian defense industry.

Thus, Japanese laser plasma chemical etching systems from SMC Corporation are in demand in Russian electronics, which are produced in Zelenograd and installed in military products where Chinese ones cannot be supplied. 

In 2024, JSC “Kontrakt Holding” delivered such a unit to the well-known Russian chip manufacturer JSC “Mikron”, a military supplier under sanctions. 

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In general, importing companies that traded with the Russian military-industrial complex can be divided into four groups: 

• Old defense manufacturing plants; 
• Industrial giants that produce large-tonnage products;
• Affiliated enterprises that produce certain important components in the Russian Federation;
• Resellers (intermediaries).

The largest group of resellers are suppliers of metalworking machines and spare parts for them. These include, in particular, Unimatic, Ameka, Kompaniya Promarsenal, JSC Rosmark-Stal, Soyuz Engineering, Ipr Obladnannya, MT Machinery, STS Technology, Grant-Trade and Inkor.

Among the resellers of electronics, boards, microcircuits, radio components, connectors, telecommunications equipment and industrial automation systems, the companies “Trimix”, “Uniservice”, “Radiofeed Systems” and “Bi Pitron” were identified. 

Resellers import not only Chinese equipment. The leader among “Western” brands is traditionally the Japanese Tsugami, which produces machine tools. Among the countries of origin, in addition to Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Switzerland are the leaders.

Western countries have only partially included the largest importers-resellers in terms of the volume of deals with the defense industry in the sanctions lists. Medium and small resellers in terms of the volume of deals with the military-industrial complex are mostly not subject to sanctions at all. 

Therefore, if they are simultaneously included in the sanctions lists, this could seriously affect the Russian military production.

(C)UNIAN 2026