Russia lost access to Western technology after it launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. U.S. and other Western sanctions have cut it off from access to a wide range of components that could have both military and dual uses.. However, this does not mean at all that Moscow has come to terms with this situation..

US court documents may shed some light on how Russia is trying to circumvent sanctions and gain access to US technology. For example, the accusation, published on December 13 on the website of the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, concerns five Russians and two American citizens..

The document notes that all seven were somehow connected with two companies in Moscow: Sernia Engineering and Sertal. These companies are directly subordinate to the Russian intelligence services and are engaged in the purchase of advanced electronics and other equipment for the FSB, Rostek, Rosatom, the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian Foreign Military Intelligence and the Russian Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate, known as "

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Sernia and Sertal operate a large network of shell companies and bank accounts around the world, including the US. This network was used to hide the involvement of the Russian government and the true end users of American-made technologies..

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After Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine, the US Department of the Treasury and the US Department of Commerce imposed sanctions against these Russian companies.. However, purchases did not stop completely..

According to the prosecution, Russian Alexei Ipolitov received orders from Russian structures, after which he transferred them to Sertal employees Evgeny Grinin and Svetlana Skvortsova. They, in turn, provided funding and organized supply routes.. Further, another participant in the scheme, Brooklyn resident Boris Livshits, bought the necessary components from American manufacturers.. To this end, he opened a number of shell companies and associated bank accounts in New York.. Livshits contacted manufacturers in the US directly, often posing as an alias and giving false information about how American products would be used..

Then two other defendants entered the game - Alexei Breiman and Vadim Ermolenko, both US citizens. They falsified shipping documents and invoices, repackaged goods and sent them to intermediate points around the world.. In particular, their parcels were received by the self-styled " From intermediate points, goods prohibited by sanctions came to Russia.

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The indictment says that Konosnok sometimes personally smuggled sanctioned goods across the border.. On October 27, 2022, he was stopped at an Estonian border checkpoint with 35 types of semiconductors and other electronics ordered by Livshits. In addition, he had several thousand American-made 6.5 mm sniper rifle bullets.. A month later, Konosnok again tried to cross the border and enter Russia with 20 suitcases filled with bullets made in the USA.. In particular, he carried tactical cartridges. 338 for sniper rifles. All this Russian smugglers tried to pass off as " Estonian law enforcers searched the warehouse used by Konosnok and found 170 kilograms of ammunition there.

Konoshok was arrested, the US is trying to extradite him. Of all the participants in the Russian scheme, Grinin, Ippolitov, Livshits and Skvortsova remain at large.. If all defendants in the US are found guilty, they face up to 30 years in prison.

Another accusation, published on the website of the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, concerns a resident of Moscow, Ilya Balakaev.. He received orders from the FSB for parts and electronics banned by the sanctions, and then went to the United States and bought them there.. In particular, he bought American-made spectrum analyzers and signal generators for the FSB, which are used by the Russian intelligence service to detect bugs and send secret messages.. If found guilty, Balakaev faces up to 75 years in prison for violating sanctions.

The Wall Street Journal also wrote that Russia is importing computer chips banned by sanctions on a pre-war scale.. And in this it is helped by countries that have not joined the sanctions, in particular Turkey and China..