Russian military receives chips from the United States
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Russian suppliers buy Texas Instruments (TI) chips for the military without the company's knowledge. Russian distributors circumvent restrictions through online stores and intermediaries in Hong Kong and other countries.
Bloomberg reports this with reference to internal documents.
American chips for the Russian military
According to Bloomberg, one of the distributors processed more than 4,000 orders for $6 million, of which $4 million went to the Russian military. TI chips are used to manufacture drones, missiles, and communication systems.
The company emphasizes that it prohibits resale to Russia and is improving controls, but admits that some of its technology may have been used by the Russian military. Senator Richard Blumenthal has previously criticized TI's online sales control, urging the company to tighten up its checks.
Response of the Center for Countering Disinformation
The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andrii Kovalenko, responded on Telegram to a media publication about the Russian military's access to chips from the United States.
"This is quite bad, because they are used to produce missiles, and then Putin scares Western societies with nuclear-capable missiles with Western components," he said in a statement.
Earlier, we wrote that the Shahed-136 kamikaze drones used by Russia to shell Ukraine are now able to adjust their course via 3G/LTE modems.
As a reminder, the Shahed-136 drones are gaining higher altitudes and speed.
