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Sanctions against Russia have failed to stop the production of missiles and other weapons. They continue to use Western-made microchips. Research into how they got to Russia revealed a connection to a businessman living in Latvia. He categorically denies the allegations, but Nothing Personal has discovered that the organization founded by this businessman supports the Russian army and receives money from Vladimir Putin’s foundation.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the West imposed unprecedented sanctions against the aggressor state. Their goal is to reduce the revenues of the Russian budget, harm the well-being of responsible officials and the entire population, and reduce the power of the military sector.
However, the sanctions have hurt the Russian economy more slowly than expected. This year it is planned to spend almost a third of the entire state budget on military purposes. Some types of rockets are sold out. However, they continue to kill Ukrainians because Russia was already able to produce new Ukrainians during the war.
Some of the missiles and drones used against Ukraine end up in the hands of experts and can thus be examined. They found 250 Western-made parts in Russian weapons, mostly microchips that Russia itself does not produce. Western countries have banned the supply of such products to Russian military companies. Nevertheless, Russia was able to increase the production rate of missiles and other weapons last year.
Russia receives the necessary components bypassing sanctions. Deliveries are made via third countries such as China, Turkey or the United Arab Emirates. Customs data is falsified so that the parts are supposedly imported for civilian purposes but are then redirected to the military sector. Media reports that Russia is buying refrigerators and washing machines in large quantities just to get microchips.
Ukrainians have found hundreds of chips from the American company “Analog Devices” in the Iranian-made drones “Shahed” and “Mohayer”, the Russian-made unmanned aerial vehicles “Lancet”, the ballistic missiles “Iskander”, “Kinzhal” and cruise missiles. Kalibr” and other weapon systems.
This particular chip was in the Kalibr rocket. The company that once imported such devices to Russia was “Eltekh Komponent”. Until the end of last year, it belonged to Andrejas Peregudas, who lives in Latvia. He told “The Insider” that microchips from “Analog Devices” have no longer been imported into Russia since 2019. Data from the customs database “ImportGenius” shows that the company continued to do so until March 1, 2022.
“Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in accordance with U.S. and EU sanctions, Analog Devices ceased operations in Russia and the Russian-supported regions of Ukraine and Belarus and immediately instructed all of our distributors to stop shipping our products there to set regions. Any shipment.” “Entering these regions after sanctions have been imposed is a direct violation of our policies and is the result of the unauthorized resale or diversion of Analog Devices products,” said Nicholas Smith, a spokesman for Analog Devices.
“The Insider” writes that the chips are now arriving in Russia via the Chinese company “Win Key Limited”. Peregud denies involvement in the plan.
“Eltekh Komponent” was hit by Ukrainian sanctions last May. Data from Latvian registers show that the owner of Eltekh owns a company here and at least two properties in Jurmala.
Andrejs Pereguds submitted his Russian Federation passport to the commercial register. Documents show he filed a request to change his details in 2022. He now appears in Latvian registers as an Israeli citizen.
Pereguda owns the company “Caro Electronics” in Latvia. The office building in Riga appears as the company’s address in Internet search engines. You haven’t noticed a company like this here yet.
The company register data shows that the company has been declared as the property of Pereguda in Jurmala since 2019.
“I can say that we have always complied with all the regulations that we had to comply with. This also includes the fact that we were in full compliance with the last regulations, and that was, if I remember correctly, in November 2022, when Russia introduced a complete ban.” “Importing American equipment, everyone for importing equipment with American technology,” says the former owner of “Eltekh Komponent” Andrejs Pereguds.
At first, Peregud agreed to the “nothing personal” interview, but later changed his mind. He had several companies in Russia, today only one remains – “Eltekh”. In Russia, it was granted a license “for the development and manufacture of equipment for nuclear facilities, radiation sources, storage facilities for nuclear materials and radioactive substances, and storage facilities for radioactive waste.”
““Eltekh” is the only company I own in the Russian Federation. Currently, this company’s only activity is owning a small office building and renting office space. The building and the company are for sale. Until around 2017 this company was also engaged in the supply of electronic components. One of the largest customers was the Moscow plant “Fizpribor”, which manufactured systems for nuclear power plants. At the request of this customer, the company should receive this certificate, which expired in 2012,” says Peregud.
Public records show that the license issued by “Eltekh” is still valid.
Andrejs Pereguds is also one of the founders of the Russian-registered aviation theme club “Argo” and is still on the board. Club Zero received a grant of less than a million rubles from the Russian President’s Fund. The target group of the project are children of mobilized people and soldiers, children of large families and activists of the organization “We are together”. It is another body under the patronage of the President of Russia.
Peregud claims to be the founder of the club because he gave it an airfield that belonged to him. He has had no connection to the club for years. Since its founding, the association’s goals have included “preparing young people for service in the Russian army”.
“When registering the Argo club in 2003, we used the standard model of the statutes of the Russian aviation club. Of course, as one of the club’s founders, I was introduced to the draft statutes. I don’t remember whether.” I paid attention to this point of the norm, but as far as I remember, in 2003 it was in no way wrong to prepare young people for service in the Russian army. Unfortunately, I couldn’t have done that in 2003 “predicted the events in 2014 and 2022,” says Peregud.
The State Security Service refused to comment on this or other cases in which suspicions of aid to the Russian military industry were publicly expressed. The service reports that 316 reports of possible sanctions violations were received last year. The economic cooperation of companies registered in Latvia with Russia will continue to be assessed. In other institutions there are even more checks for sanctions evasion – around a thousand in total.
“No fewer than 270 criminal cases were initiated. In all cases, preliminary investigations are ongoing. At some point there will be a resolution of criminal legal relations. However, if we talk about the section that interests us.” They – the military sector – then, of course, in this section on the fingers of one or two hands [var saskaitīt] Cases under investigation. “But that does not mean that information of this type is not monitored and checked,” explains public prosecutor Salvis Skaistais.
Clearly, these transit attempts, where there are signs that sanctions are being evaded under the guise of transit, of course all this is monitored by customs, there are also several criminal cases in which this is being investigated.
Prosecutors have so far filed charges against three people who tried to export goods to Belarus that could be used in the military industry. One person is in custody while the other is released on bail. The third person is abroad.
The Chinese company that helped the American microchips get to Russia was added to the US sanctions list three months ago. On the other hand, database information from “ImportGenius” shows that “Elteh Komponent” Russia also imported goods from Canadian microchip and semiconductor manufacturer “Aimtec” until the end of April last year.
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