Russian deputy PM ridicules von der Leyen chip claim

Russia does not need foreign chips to repair its military equipment as it has no shortage of its own, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov has said, countering a claim made by the head of the European Commission.

Manturov was referring to the statement by the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, who said late last year that the Russian military was removing chips from foreign dishwashers and refrigerators to make good its hardware on the battlefield in Ukraine.

“It sounded somewhat strange, at least, because it is simply impossible to use a chip a second time, speaking in technological terms, in most cases. Often, separate microelectronic chips are designed for the equipment, which is produced directly for the customer,” Manturov, the head of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

Consumer electronics and appliances use generally available chips, which are produced by many countries, primarily ones friendly to Russia, he argued.

“If we are talking about weapons and military equipment, then the requirements for microcircuits are different, they are by orders of magnitude larger,” Manturov explained, adding that Russia has such technology itself.

A spike in European home-appliance imports by Russia’s neighbors in the wake of Western sanctions, and Moscow’s introduction of a parallel import mechanism have led to wide-spread media speculation about its possible use of appliance parts in its military gear.

Global chipmakers started suspending semiconductor chip sales to Russia after US sanctions were imposed in February 2022. Washington announced a package of measures aiming to undermine Russia’s military capability, which included a ban on chip sales to the country. However, according to media reports, Western sanctions failed to hamper the flow.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Chinese defense firms have been supplying Russia with components suitable for military use. The report claimed that despite repeated attempts by the US to shut off the flow of such parts through Türkiye and the UAE, tens of thousands of shipments have been successfully completed.

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