Citing concerns about sanctions circumvention, France has called on India to stop the export of Thales-made Su-30 avionics to Russia through Kazakhstan.
France asked India to strengthen its export restrictions on avionics components used in Su-30s
In response to concerns that these critical supplies might be indirectly given to Russia in order to get arround the international sanctions, France has formally asked India to strengthen its export restrictions on avionics components used in Su-30 fighter jets, Defense.IN reported.
India supplied Sukhoi Su-30s spare parts and avionics to Russia
Reports that a Kazakhstan-based firm is assisting with the maintenance and repair of Russian Su-30SM fighter jets using French-made technology—possibly imported from India—have raised concerns.
France is concerned that Russia, currently under international sanctions due to its war of aggression against Ukraine, could exploit this access to crucial parts for indirect supply to maintain the combat capabilities of its warplanes.
Kazakh company ARC Group is exploiting French technology to service Russian Su-30s.
According to an investigation by the intelligence community InformNapalm, the Kazakh company ARC Group is exploiting French technology to service Russian Su-30SMs, leveraging a cunning scheme to circumvent sanctions. Paris has expressed concerns, prompting India to monitor and restrict the movement of these sensitive components.
This investigation has uncovered a sophisticated scheme of Russian sanctions evasion. It has revealed how Russian military aircraft, particularly Su-30SM fighters, continue to be serviced using French avionics from companies like Thales and Safran.
At the heart of this scheme is the partnership between Kazakhstan’s ARC Group and Russia’s Rosaviaspetskomplekt. Despite the sanctions explicitly prohibiting such transactions, the investigation details how Kazakhstan became a key conduit for maintaining Russian Su-30SM fighter jets, which rely on sophisticated French avionics, including the SMD55S and SMD66S multifunctional displays, TLS2020 landing system, and SIGMA 95NAA navigation system, among others.
These systems are integral to the aircraft’s operation, making their maintenance critical for Russian military operations, including bombardments of cities and military positions in Ukraine. Documents acquired by InformNapalm through multiple sources, including a whistleblower from Kazakhstan, outline the methods used to bypass these restrictions.
The Su-30SM, a variation of the Su-30MKI operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF), depends strongly on avionics systems made by the French company Thales. These systems, which are essential to the aircraft’s operating efficiency, include heads-up displays (HUDs), navigation systems, and multipurpose displays.
India has accumulated considerable competence in maintaining and delivering spare parts for Su-30MKI aircraft, including the French-made avionics, as it operates the largest fleet of these aircraft worldwide. Indian companies are now major vendors in the worldwide Su-30 supply chain thanks to this experience.
This investigation underscores the complicated nature of international defense commerce and the difficulties in implementing sanctions in a global environment, even if India has not yet formally replied to the French request, according to the Indian newspaper.
India is in a unique position to affect the flow of these sensitive aviation technologies because it is a significant operator and supplier of Su-30 components.
Indian defense companies participating in the Su-30 supply chain are probably going to come under more scrutiny as a result of the French request. It is unclear how India would manage the difficulties of sanctions on Russia while attempting to maintain positive relations with both the West and Russia.
Brahmos Aerospace supplies microchips.
The United States on Wednesday dramatically broadened sanctions on Russia, including by targeting China-based companies selling semiconductors to Moscow, as part of an effort to undercut the Russian military machine waging war on Ukraine.
Indian Brahmos Aerospace supplied Russia with semiconductors and microchips used to produce anti-ship and cruise missile seeker in India and Russia. Indian Brahmos is not on the list of sanctioned companies. The Brahmos-supplied semiconductors were used to produce seekers in India, and later, the company supplied the same seekers to Russia for manufacturing the Kalibr cruise missile and Kh-31 anti-ship missiles.
Among the steps, the U.S. Treasury said it was raising “the risk of secondary sanctions for foreign financial institutions that deal with Russia’s war economy,” effectively threatening them with losing access to the U.S. financial system.
It also said it was moving to restrict the Russian military industrial base’s ability to exploit certain U.S. software and information technology services and, with the State Department, targeting more than 300 individuals and entities in Russia and beyond, including in Asia, Europe and Africa.
Separately, the Commerce Department said it was targeting shell companies in Hong Kong for diverting semiconductors to Russia, taking steps that would affect nearly $100 million of high-priority items for Moscow including such chips.
A senior Commerce official told reporters on condition of anonymity that Russia will also expand its list of items it cannot import from other nations to include not just U.S.-origin products but also U.S.-branded goods, meaning those made with U.S. intellectual property or technology.
WIDELY USED TECHNOLOGY
U.S.-made chips and other technology have been found in a wide array of Russian equipment, from drones to radios, missiles and armored vehicles, recovered from the battlefield, Ukrainian officials say.
After seizing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022, triggering a host of new U.S. economic sanctions on Moscow.
While many analysts do not expect U.S. and other nations’ sanctions to materially change Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calculus, they believe they will both make it harder for Moscow to wage war and, over time, weaken Russia’s economy.
“Today’s actions strike at their remaining avenues for international materials and equipment, including their reliance on critical supplies from third countries,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
The Treasury also said it was imposing sanctions on key parts of Russia’s financial infrastructure, including the Moscow Exchange (MOEX), which operates Russia’s largest public markets for equity, fixed income, foreign exchange and other products.
MOEX and its related subsidiaries have facilitated sanctions evasion by obscuring the identities of parties engaged in such transactions, a senior Treasury official told reporters. By sanctioning them, the official said, the U.S. would force greater transparency on cross-border transactions, making it harder to evade sanctions.
MOEX, in a statement rushed out within an hour of the U.S. moves on Wednesday, a public holiday in Russia, said the new sanctions had forced an immediate suspension of trading in dollars and euros on its leading financial marketplace.
VIOLATING SANCTIONS
Despite export controls and sanctions imposed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, The Insider has learned that tens of millions of dollars worth of microchips produced by two U.S. technology giants, Texas Instruments and Analog Devices, were shipped to Russia in a nine-month period in 2022. These microchips are used in Russian missiles and satellite communications integral to the Kremlin’s war effort, not to mention its ongoing attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Between early March and late November 2022, third-party companies supplied Russia with American-manufactured electronics from all over the world. Not only via main clearinghouses in China and Hong Kong, which don’t have sanctions in place against Russia, but also through Western companies in countries that do. They include Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Finland, all EU and NATO allies, which have provided extensive humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine.
According to Russian customs declarations, between March 1 and November 30, 2022, $89 million worth of Analog Devices-manufactured microchips and $50 million worth of Texas Instruments-manufactured ones were imported into Russia from foreign jurisdictions. Many of those microchips have military applications, according to Leonid Dmitriev, a Ukrainian military expert The Insider consulted…
Import data is readily accessible to anyone through Import Genius, a fee-for-service website that allows people to examine customs traffic in a host of countries. The data set The Insider examined represents just a small snapshot of what looks like extensive violations of U.S. and EU sanctions in the course of the 18-month conflict.
The scheme was pretty straightforward: a private company registered in a foreign country acquired the Texas Instruments or Analog Devices microchips and then resold them to a private Russian import company. The bills of lading clearly identified the nature of the wares being shipped to Russia. The imports were next logged by the Russian Federal Customs Service. From there, their final destination and end-users remain unknown.
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