Using its own subsidiaries, shell companies, and foreign intermediaries, Russia’s Rostec state-owned corporation purchases US-made components to produce electronic warfare equipment later used against Ukraine, according to an investigation by the Russian website Vazhnye Istorii. Rostec has been under US and EU sanctions since 2014.
In 2022 alone, the Saratov-based VMK company received $43 million worth of components from abroad, primarily from US companies Analog Devices, Xilinx, and Texas Instruments, and supplied the imported equipment to its sole buyer, Rostec’s subsidiary Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET), according to VI.
Sanctioned by the US since 2014, KRET is the largest player in Russia’s electronic warfare market. Russia spends 30-40 billion rubles ($420-560 million) annually on purchasing electronic warfare systems, according to Russian military expert Pavel Luzin.
To bypass sanctions, KRET’s subsidiary Radiopriborsnab registered another company with the same name at the same legal address in 2017, owned by the original Radiopriborsnab (49.9%), another KRET subsidiary (49.9%), and the company’s director (0.2%):