an adapted variation of an investigationby the Belarusian Investigative Center.A Belarusian state-owned company is supplying Russia with microchips needed to build rockets utilizing Western equipment, elements and basic materials in defiance of worldwide sanctions, a new examination by the Belarusian Investigative Center has revealed.The Western sanctions troubled Russia in response to its full-blown invasion of Ukraine were designed to cut off Moscows access to the technology and products needed to produce missiles and precision weapons.At first, it seemed like they were working.
In November 2022, Ukraines then-Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikovsaidthat the Kremlin had just 119 Iskander missiles overlooked of the 900 that it had at the start of the intrusion.
The variety of other accuracy rockets had likewise decreased.Two years later, in December 2024, Andriy Yusov, a representative for Ukraines GUR military intelligence service, saidthat Russia had actually increased its stockpile of rockets seriously based on foreign components in spite of routinely shelling Ukraine.
He said Russia was producing some 50 Iskanders a month and was also building up its stockpile of other kinds of missiles.Why does not the rocket stockpile run out?Following a meeting with Vladimir Putin in October 2022, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko saidthe Russian leader revealed a preparedness to pay any amount of cash for a microelectronics product.A year later, Ukrainian electronic devices and weapons expert Serhii Beskrestnovpublishedphotos of the Zarya-61M onboard computer module utilized in Russian rockets on his Telegram channel.
This managing device consists of 4 primary printed circuit boards.Yes, whatever is outdated.
Yeah, its big.
But alas, it is made completely from Russian parts.
It is produced, it flies, it eliminates, hewrote.The BIC examined the photographs released by Beskrestnov and found that not all of the electronic devices in the gadget were Russian-made.
Some chips show a logo in the shape of a lightning bolt or the Cyrillic letter a hallmark of Belarusian state-owned business Integral.The Zarya-61M onboard computer module.@serhii_flashAn confidential Ukrainian serviceman who runs a YouTube channel that examines rocket electronics validated the use of Integral microchips in Russian weapons.
On his YouTube channel, the serviceman shows these elements in theR-37, Kh-59M2A, S-300, Kh-101andIskanderrockets.
The Ukrainian serviceman informed the BIC that half of the chips in the latter 2 missiles were produced by Integral.
As you can see in the images, some were released in 2023.
Ukraines SBU security service likewise confirmed to the BIC that parts manufactured by Integral are utilized in Russian missiles.President Vladimir Putin and BelarusPresident Alexander Lukashenko.kremlin.ruThis implies that Russia can continue to fire rockets at Ukraine, thanks in part to supplies from Belarus.
In total, Integral shipped more than 6 million microchips worth more than$130 million to Russia between March 2022 and June 2024, according to customs data readily available to the BIC.
By contrast, the overall value of Belarusian microchip shipments to Russia throughout this duration was just over$165 million.
That is, Integral supplied 80%of them.Since the major invasion of Ukraine, Integrals incomes have actually skyrocketed.
In 2023, the companys net earnings was more than 11 times higher than in 2022 practically 150 million Belarusian rubles(about$50 million).
That is 40 times Integrals 2021 incomes.
Data for 2024 was not yet publicly available at the time of publication.Customers from the Russian military-industrial complexThe BIC examined Integrals consumers from March 2022 to July 2024 and discovered that Smolensk-based Integral-Zapad was the biggest Russian purchaser of its microchips during this period, buying$31.3 million worth of items.
The business has no direct relate to Belarusian Integral, but it is owned by a Belarusian resident.
The companys websitereportedcooperating with the Russian Defense Ministry until July 2022.
Thewebsitewas undergoing a redesign at the time of publishing this investigation.The second-largest buyer was Russias Spets-Elektronkomplekt, which bought$30 million worth of microchips from Integral.
The business website does not supply info on defense industry links.
However, the companys partner, the major Russian microchip manufacturer Angstrem, sayson its site that Spets-Elektronkomplekt was certified by the Defense Ministry in 1998 and got Leader-Follower Certificate No.
1(an authorities acknowledgment as a trusted supplier to the military-industrial complex).
Integral Spb, the St.
Petersburg-based subsidiary of the Belarusian business Integral, is another significant buyer, acquiring $16.8 million worth of chips.
Its CEO Vladimir Lazovsky has actually openlystatedthat the Russian military-industrial complex is one of its primary clients.
In 2021, the company got a certificate of conformity from the Oboronsertifika system.
It was targeted by EU sanctions following the full-blown invasion of Ukraine.Remains of Russian missile Iskander-M near the city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine.National Police of UkraineIn addition to the above, Integral provided products to Russian companies Innovatsionnye Tekhnologii, which purchased$16.7 countless microchips, Don, which purchased$9.5 countless products, and Radiant-EK, which acquired$5.3 million of microchips.
These companies are likewise connected to the Russian defense industry.Western equipmentBelarusian and Russian state TV reports in 2024 information how Integral uses Western devices.
The footageincludesGerman-made Carl Zeiss Axiotron microscopic lens for chip quality control, SwissVAT Vakuumventilevalves and BritishEdwardsvacuum systems for keeping sterility in production processes.Also on screen areDISCO Corporations Japanese slicers for micron accuracy wafer separation andHORIBAs material analysis equipment.
U.S.-madeCascade Microtechs( FormFactor )test systems, which can be used to examine the performance of microchips before they are put together, are also demonstrated.Integrals main cataloguestatesthat it makes products utilizing Western devices.
The operation of this equipment is dependent on aconstantsupply of Western basic materials and elements, without which its usage is impossible.
Sanctions forbid the sale of Western basic materials and elements to Belarus.Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia after Russian strike with Iskander K missile.National Police of UkraineThe value of these elements is validated by data from the internal correspondence of Roselektronika, part of the Russian state corporation Rostec, Russias largest arms maker: In the existing political and financial environment, the main suppliers of third-party elements, such as AO Girikond, AO NZPP Vostok, and AO Elekond, have increased the shipment time to 540 days, which is 150%of the performance time of the supply agreement for items to be delivered to AO SKTB RT.
Also, suppliers of active components, such as AO Gruppa Kremniy-EL, AO Angstrem, AO VZPP-S, OAO Integral, which depend on the supply of imported materials and chemicals, discover it hard to guarantee the fulfillment of deliveries to AO SKTB RT, checks out the file, which we got thanks to the Organized CrimeandCorruptionReporting Project(OCCRP ).
However, regardless of EU andU.S.sanctionsrestricting the supply of strategic dual-use products and devices to Belarus, Integral continues to receive required parts and basic materials from EU countries.Hydrochloric acid for IntegralOne of the critical products for Integral is high-purity hydrochloric acid, also referred to as hydrogen chloride.Hydrochloric acid isusedto reward semiconductor wafers.
This procedure guarantees ideal tidiness and smoothness.
These are essential specifications for the deposition of complex chip structures.
Even the smallest quantity of contamination on the wafers can cause problems and minimized item quality.Products of the SP AO Integral Spb.SP AO Integral SpbIn 2021, hydrochloric acid with a purity of 99.999%was provided to Integral by the German company UrSeCo Handels.But a brand-new delivery scheme emerged in 2022, when sanctions banned the chemical from going into Russia.
The materials travelled through Poland and Turkey to Kazakhstan before reaching Belarus.
A regional company, United Trading Group, is the recipient of the acid in Kazakhstan.
Behind the huge name is a company with just one staff member.
It was founded a couple of weeks after the outbreak of the full-scale war.
It provided Russia, especially Siltron and Elektrosnab, with the very same high-purity acid.These two business provided acid with the same qualities to Belarus.
In the case of deliveries from Elektrosnab to Integral, the place of manufacture is specified as remaining in Germany.Coincidences in the dates and volumes of successive sanction-evading shipments from Germany to Russia along the chain we have actually described may suggest that the very same German acid was coming from Germany to Russia.In specific, on June 9, 2022, Germanys UrSeCo Handels provided 860 kgs of high-purity hydrochloric acid produced by Germanys Wacker Chemie to Kazakhstans United Trading Group.
The exact same month, United Trading Group delivered a consignment of the same Germany-made compound of specifically the exact same weight to the Russian company Elektrosnab.
Elektrosnab supplied German acid to Integral till the end of 2023.
In July 2024, the EU enforced sanctions banning the supply of German acid not just to Russia, through which it had actually been supplied to Integral considering that the full-scale invasion, however also to Belarus.
The Russian company Siltron, established less than three months after the invasion of Ukraine, also began providing this chemical to the business.
In September 2024, the business offered it directly to Integral.
In July of that year, an intermediary was used the Belarusian company Digna-NTR.
Elimination of remains of a Russian missile Iskander K, which has actually fallen in Zaporizhzhia.National Police of UkraineUnited Trading Group is officially noted as the acid producer in the deliveries from Kazakhstans company to Siltron.
But this is barely the truth.Firstly, according to the officialregisterof business entities in Kazakhstan, the company has just one worker(in the register, it is classified as micro-entrepreneurship).
Secondly, this micro-enterprises activities only consist of wholesale trade, not production.
We also discovered no details that hydrochloric acid with a pureness of 99.999%is produced in Kazakhstan.
In September 2023, the Kazakh government embraced adecreestating that the only hydrochloric acid manufacturer in the country is JSC Kaustik.
The optimum available pureness of the compound at that time was 35 %.
Ever since, there have been no reports of new production fulfilling the parameters.Finally, some deliveries of alleged Kazakh acid from Siltron to Belarus were marked with the brand SEMICOSIL HLC 5.5.
Wacker Chemie, a German concern, owns this hallmark.
Integrals files relating to the acid purchase from Digna-NTR, which got the chemical from Siltron, list Germany as the location of acid production.In July 2024, Siltron delivered two batches of acid to Digna-NTR: among 150 kilograms and the other of 100 kgs.
In both shipments, Kazakhstan was suggested as the native land.
At the exact same time, the compound brand name was German SEMICOSIL HLC 5.5.
Digna-NTR, in turn, delivered the same total up to Integral.
[*] Russias Siltron is straight linked with UrSeCo Handels, an acid provider from Germany.
Both business are owned by members of the exact same household.
The managing director and 45 %owner of the German business UrSeCo Handels is Alexander Andreyevich Zhdanov.
In November 2023, an individual with the same surname Alexander Alexandrovich Zhdanov offered a loan to the Russian business Siltron.
On Jan.
13, 2025, he also ended up being the owner of 90 %of this business, according to the Russian database of companies and business owners SPARK.As the BIC discovered, Alexander Andreyevich and Alexander Alexandrovich Zhdanov are probably daddy and kid.
The Russian passport database reveals they are from the same household.
[*] [*] [*] WorkaroundsHydrochloric acid is one of many examples of how Integral continues to buy banned Western equipment, spare parts and materials to prevent sanctions.
Amongst the products and technologies crucial to Integral are MWM 2032 gas engines and extra parts.
These German motors guarantee a stable power supply for production processes.
Intermediary companies help the business prevent the export restriction to Belarus and Russia introduced in 2022.
For example, in the spring of 2024, the company purchased extra parts for these engines 5 times through the Belarus-based companiesMotory i Transmissiya, PromelcomandImperiya Zapad.
In addition, on Dec.
20, 2024, Integralplaceda brand-new tender for the purchase of parts and spare parts for MWM engines for$300,000.
Integrals suppliers validated the use of schemes to prevent the sanctions when called by BIC reporters posing as possible customers.Sanctions are a non-issue, stated Illia Barouski, deputy head of Imperiya Zapad.
He stated they also have their own company in Poland, which helps with the purchase of items, and these items are then sent from Poland to Belarus, Russia, and other nations, at first imported from Poland.
Promelcom founder Evgenii Kazakov said that sanctions circumvention schemes guarantee timely shipment of items: In regards to, we will bring it quickly within a week or two.
We have currently developed this.
It ought to saythrough Kyrgyzstan.
However its us who provides.
So, it will be quick.
Gaps in sanctionsAnother example of sanctions circumvention that BIC reporters found was thepurchaseof mini-electric motors manufactured by the German company Faulhaber Group.
In May 2024, Integral bought 44 such gadgets from the Chinese company Hebei Nanuo Alloy Material Co.Installation of the Iskander M missile.Russian Defense MinistrySupplies of Western components allow Russia and Belarus to find out how to replicate them, which might be harmful, Ukrainian air travel professional Anatolii Khrapchynskyi informed the BIC.There is an idea called re-engineering.
This is when they copy some Western component: they take it apart, grind it down layer by layer, research study how it works and can replicate it, Khrapchynskyi said.For a few of these parts, there is no need for this.
Amongst Integrals purchases, BIC found Western elements that are not consisted of in the U.S.
and EU sanctions lists.
These consist of argon-ion lasers, polishing slurries, polishing wheels and parts utilized in the production of semiconductors and microelectronics.And although Integrals main business is approved by the U.S., the EU has actually not included it to its list of restrictions.BIC sent a demand to the European Commission and relevant regulators asking them to discuss the disparities in the sanctions policy against Integral and its suppliers.Russia and Belarus are constantly looking for methods which to obtain crucial products for Russias war in Ukraine in offense of sanctions, Tom Keatinge, directorof the Center for Finance and Security at the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute(RUSI), told the BIC.This undoubtedly implies that countries that surround Russia especially those that are members of the Eurasian Economic Area will be associated with this evasion activity.
...
Ukraines allies need to be harder in making use of the powers they have to name-and-shame and sanction those companies(and even entire nations) that permit circumvention to happen.
There has been a great deal of diplomatic dialogue, however at some point the talking needs to be backed up by action, he said.The BIC sent out requests for comment to Integral and all participants in the supply chain Digna-NTR, Wacker Chemie, Elektrosnab, Siltron, United Trading Group, and UrSeCo Handels about the sanctions offenses found by this examination.
At the time of publication, we had actually not gotten any responses.