Apparatist moods - Newspaper Kommersant No. 182 (7383) dated 01.10.2022

Apparatist moods - Newspaper Kommersant No. 182 (7383) dated 01.10.2022



On the day of the signing of agreements on the entry of new territories into the Russian Federation, the United States introduced new anti-Russian sanctions. In particular, the head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, fell under the sanctions, which, according to experts, will give foreign counterparties another reason to refuse to cooperate with the Central Bank and Russian banks. In addition to personal restrictions, the sanctions affected the enterprises of the radio-electronic and telecommunications industries. All companies are little known, but the profile of their activities, judging by open information, one way or another can be connected with the production of modern weapons.

On September 30, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury updated the list of anti-Russian sanctions. Under personal sanctions, in particular, fell Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak (he oversees the fuel and energy complex, in particular, the negotiation process within the framework of OPEC+). The list also included the chairman of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina (the UK imposed sanctions against her at the same time, earlier she fell under the sanctions of Canada and Australia), the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Olga Skorobogatova.

OFAC reminded readers that since Elvira Nabiullina became the head of the Central Bank in 2013, she has been working to protect the Kremlin from Western sanctions imposed in response to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and after the start of the NWO on the territory of Ukraine in 2022. With regard to Olga Skorobogatova, it is indicated that she supervises the work of the national payment system "Mir" and the operations of the Central Bank in Russian and foreign financial markets. At the same time, NSPK (the Mir operator) did not fall under the sanctions, although foreign banks restrict work with it (see "Kommersant" dated September 20). The Central Bank itself also avoided being blacklisted by the US.

“Sanctions against individuals are some kind of incentive for them to stop holding their respective positions,” says Iontsev, Lyakhovsky and Partners partner Igor Dubov. At the same time, according to him, the sanctions against Ms. Nabiullina do not affect her powers within the Russian Federation, but her communication with the foreign banking community will be difficult. Another specialized lawyer notes that international communications "since the onset of the SVO, if not minimized, then very limited."

Now external counterparties will have more reasons to refuse to cooperate with the Bank of Russia and the Russian banking system due to the risk of secondary sanctions, including banks from friendly jurisdictions, the source of Kommersant points out.

At the same time, there are no fears, for example, that now there will be no one to sign any international document. Although the counterparties are now trying to exclude any traces of the relationship, even, for example, when terminating the contract, trying not to conclude a separate agreement that would require the signatures of both parties, but getting by with a one-sided notification letter, the lawyer notes.

State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein was also subject to restrictions. Mr. Khinshtein has been heading the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, IT and Communications since 2020. He was a co-author of the law on the “landing” of foreign IT giants, which obliges foreign services popular in Russia to open a branch or representative office in Russia, the law on sanctions for censorship against Russian media, the law on fines for social networks for not deleting illegal information, including calls for extremism, and other initiatives. Until 2020, he was Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption.

The new sectoral US sanctions affected mainly communications, radio electronics and telecommunications equipment manufacturers.

Thus, JSC Radioavionika, which, according to its own data, is engaged in “research and development of complex multi-purpose radio-electronic systems and the organization of their mass production,” was included in the OFAC sanctions lists. At the same time, judging by the list of the company’s intellectual property (published in SPARK-Interfax), Radioavionika owns patents for a number of inventions related to drones: for example, among them there is a “complex of reconnaissance and fire destruction of targets based on unmanned aerial vehicles” . The company's revenue for 2020 (more recent data is not available) exceeded 2 billion rubles.

In addition, Rotek Elpom LLC, a manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, was included in the SDN list. The company, judging by the database of patents (it is also in SPARK-Interfax), owns the rights to the Raven Black trademark. The Raven Black website states that one of the company's products is a hardware and software system that can counteract "swarms of microdrones that deliver explosives or toxic substances to critical facilities." To destroy such drones, judging by the data on the website, the complex uses electromagnetic guns. However, the company offers products not only for the destruction of drones, but also complexes for scaring away wild birds and animals using acoustic effects. The revenue of Rotek Elpom at the end of 2021 amounted to 3.1 million rubles. The SDN list also included STC Modul CJSC, a Russian developer of processors (the Neuro B line), on-board equipment and software systems.

Kommersant's interlocutors, close to the government, do not yet understand the logic of the American authorities, who have imposed sanctions against "little-known companies." “Perhaps some of the listed enterprises came to light while securing the supply chains of components from abroad, I have no other explanation for this,” says one of Kommersant’s sources.

Olga Sherunkova, Anastasia Gavrilyuk, Nikita Korolev

And Britain joined them

At the same time as the United States, the United Kingdom announced new anti-Russian sanctions, banning Russia from accessing the services of its engineering, architectural, auditing, legal and advertising companies. In addition, the authorities of the kingdom imposed a ban on the supply of about 700 goods to the Russian Federation. Prior to the aggravation of relations between the Russian Federation and the West, Russian specialists actively cooperated with engineering and architectural firms from Britain and used their solutions. However, lately these contacts have come to naught. For example, in March, Zaha Hadid Architects, which had been working here for several decades, announced its withdrawal from Russia. Hussein Pliev, a member of the Delovaya Rossiya Construction Committee, says that if the UK authorities prohibit Russian developers from accessing British architectural bureaus, this will not significantly affect the Russian market. According to him, work with any foreign bureau during the implementation of the project is primarily marketing and creating prestige for buyers, and Russian architects perform all the technical part and adaptation to local realities. In addition, work with foreign counterparties has become more complicated since March due to the disconnection of some Russian banks from SWIFT, Mr. Pliev adds.

Daria Andrianova



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