NYT: Russia imports Western equipment for the FSB through ports in Turkey and Morocco

Russia imports Western equipment prohibited by sanctions through the ports of Morocco and Turkey, and installs it in FSB offices.

After the introduction of Western sanctions, Russia began to purchase telecommunications equipment and microchips for weapons systems and drones, in particular, through intermediaries in Morocco and Turkey, which took a neutral position on the war in Ukraine, reports The New York Times.

Journalists studied the leaked data: e-mails of Russian officials, trade documents and records of conversations of employees of commercial companies from the Russian Federation.

The documents show, in particular, that some of the sanctioned equipment bought in other countries, including China, is being transported through Morocco. At the state-run port of Tangier-Med, contraband equipment and components, including products from Cisco, HP, Juniper, Ericsson and Nokia, are transhipped from ship to ship and then shipped to Russia. The trade route also passes through Turkey, which, as the NYT reminds us, is a member of NATO.

A spokesman for the Port of Tangier-Med said the port leased the space to shipping companies and had “no information and no responsibility” for the vessels it handles.

In the letters, Russian trade officials specify when and how goods will be transshipped, where Russian-flagged ships can be repaired, and tell them that Turkish ports accept payment in rubles.

The equipment is openly sold in Russian specialized online stores, including Nag, OCS Distribution, 3Logic Distribution and 4Telecom.

The described procurement scheme was used, in particular, by the Russian telecom company Convex. Having bought the data transmission equipment on the Nag website, the company’s engineers, as follows from the correspondence, set out to install it at the FSB headquarters in Yekaterinburg.