Despite the imposed sanctions, the volumes of supply have not changed significantly, experts say.

Russia continues to buy microchips from manufacturers from the Netherlands, despite the sanctions. This is evidenced by the results of a journalistic investigation conducted by NOS.

“Despite the harsh sanctions, microchips from Dutch companies still end up in Russia. We are talking about millions of pieces from the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine until December inclusive,” the publication writes.

After studying open trade data and confidential documents, as well as talking to representatives of the companies involved in these deals and experts, the journalists found out how the supplies were made.

The scheme is implemented through a small group of Chinese companies that buy chips in the Netherlands and then resell them to Russia.

“Despite the increasing sanctions, there has been no decline in exports in recent months,” the journalists state.

It is claimed that Russia receives chips from two major Dutch manufacturers – NXP and Nexperia.

“NXP microcircuits were recently discovered on the battlefield in Ukraine,” the publication writes.

Representatives of manufacturing companies assure that they carefully check their customers and do not understand how their products end up in the hands of Russians.

Sanctions against Russia

The day before, the European Union extended previously introduced sanctions against Russia. It is about economic restrictions in the financial sphere and the energy sector.

However, as practice shows, there are problems to enforce these sanctions. For example, European companies continue to export oil from Russia, using a loophole in the sanctions.

According to the US, Turkey and the UAE are helping Russia circumvent some of the imposed sanctions.