**Russian Military Suppliers Exploit Loophole to Source US Microchips**
Russian suppliers to the military-industrial complex have found a way to buy microchips from Texas Instruments (TI) despite international sanctions. This was reported by Bloomberg on December 9.
According to the report, Russian distributors used a loophole to access TI’s online store and place orders for semiconductor products. These orders were fulfilled through intermediaries outside Russia.
Websites like getchips and altchips, which are blocked in the US and Europe, were used to facilitate these transactions. The availability of TI products on these platforms suggested that Russian distributors accessed the company’s technical coordinates to process orders.
Between August 2023 and August 2024, a large Russian distributor processed over 4,000 orders for thousands of TI products worth nearly $6 million. Around $4 million in orders were for Russian military firms.
The goods were routed through Hong Kong and other intermediaries before reaching Russia, with distributors applying a 40% markup to cover shipping and payment costs.
**Russia’s Military Spending Reaches Record High**
Russia’s spending on “national defense” reached an unprecedented $43 billion in the third quarter of 2024, according to The Moscow Times.
This comes as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western allies to tighten sanctions against suppliers of components used by Russian military companies. He emphasized that Russia continues to evade restrictions using shell companies and networks involving countries like China, Iran, and North Korea.
**Latest Developments in Ukraine-Russia Conflict**
In other news, the F-35s deployed under NATO’s eastern airspace monitoring mission intercepted a Russian An-72 transport aircraft and an SU-24 reconnaissance aircraft.
Russia has proposed relocating its forces to Turkish-controlled areas of Syria before transporting them to Russia by air. A Russian-controlled court in occupied Crimea sentenced a 33-year-old local resident to 15 years in a strict regime colony on charges of state treason.
President Zelensky announced his intention to call US President Joe Biden to discuss Ukraine’s invitation to NATO. Ukrainian officials are considering French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to deploy European peacekeepers on their territory, but only after getting a clear understanding of the NATO membership timeline.
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