Russia received $22 billion worth of sanctioned goods through a network of intermediaries in 2024: The Insider
In 2024, the Russian Federation received $22 billion worth of sanctioned goods through a network of intermediaries, of which about $1 billion was supplied to Russian military-industrial enterprises. This is stated in an investigation by The Insider, which analyzed in detail the import operations of more than 300 Russian companies.
According to journalists, during the year these companies imported equipment and components for the production of drones, microcircuits and sensors for military equipment, radio components, batteries manufactured in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland and other countries to the Russian Federation. Some of these products were directly or indirectly used by enterprises of the military-industrial complex.
The Insider’s editor-in-chief Roman Dobrokhotov called this investigation one of the key ones in recent years.
“We have found a way to massively, hundreds of times, identify supply chains from the border crossing to a specific military plant. This radically changes the situation, because it will allow us to massively send all known suppliers under sanctions at once, and not two or three at a time, as before. In such conditions, it will be very difficult for the military-industrial complex to adapt, and this may finally become a real problem for Russian military production,” he wrote on the social network X.
As the authors of the investigation established, importing companies that 2024 cooperated with the Russian military-industrial complex, are conditionally divided into four groups. The first group includes directly military production, which purchases sanctioned goods directly without intermediaries. Among them are the United Engine Corporation, the Ural Optical-Mechanical Plant, and the Kazan Helicopter Plant. Such enterprises carry out foreign economic operations only in exceptional cases.
The second group is large industrial companies that produce steel, cast iron, aluminum, and petroleum products. The investigation notes that the military-industrial complex cannot function without their products, while these enterprises themselves are capable of working without military orders. Despite regular supplies to the defense industry, most of them are still not under sanctions.
The third category is made up of related companies that manufacture individual components and assemblies for Russia using Western components. Journalists call them the most indicative among private importers, because in the event of restrictions being introduced, they will have to look for new cooperation schemes with Western partners, which will significantly complicate their activities.
The largest group is formed by reseller companies. As noted in The Insider, special attention is drawn to those firms whose import volumes almost coincide with the turnover of operations with the military-industrial complex. At the same time, medium and small resellers with agreements with the defense sector are currently often not covered by Western sanctions.
After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States and other Western countries introduced a number of restrictions aimed at reducing Moscow’s access to technology and equipment. However, as this investigation shows, Russia continues to find ways to circumvent sanctions and provide military production with necessary foreign components.
