Bangkok, Thailand – The United States’ efforts to cripple Russia’s war machine in Ukraine have attracted an unlikely target far from Moscow: Malaysia’s multibillion-dollar semiconductor industry.
Malaysian semiconductor maker Jatronics SDN BHD is among nearly 300 entities that Washington hit with U.S. sanctions last month over alleged links to Russian military suppliers.
Kuala Lumpur-based Jatronics is accused of sending electronic parts and components that Moscow needs to sustain the conflict to Russia.
Russian customs data shows that one of the Russian companies that Jatronics has supplied since the large-scale invasion of Moscow in February 2022 has already been sanctioned by Western governments for its alleged links to the Russian defense industry.
The latest sanctions, announced on May 1, freeze any US assets held by the targeted entities and prevent anyone under US jurisdiction from trading with them, effectively excluding them from the US financial system.
U.S. officials have not said they are certain that the components sent by Jatronics were actually used in military equipment.
“Jatronics has supplied these components to Russian-based companies that supply Russia’s military-industrial complex,” a US State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera.
Some of the materials Jatronics sent to Russia included Tier 1 items on the U.S. Commerce Department’s High Priority Common Items List, established after the invasion to prevent Russia’s access to technologies needed for warfare, the port said. -voice.
The Commerce Department describes Tier 1 items as those “of greatest concern due to their critical role in the production of advanced Russian precision-guided weapons systems, Russia’s lack of domestic production, and limited global manufacturers.”
Jatronics declined to comment.
Russian customs data analyzed by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a Washington-based think tank, corroborates the US government’s claims.
It reveals dozens of shipments since the hack to companies in Russia, some with customers of their own in Russia’s growing defense industry.
According to the data, which was shared with Al Jazeera, Jatronics made more than 50 deliveries to companies in Russia worth more than $3 million between April 2022 and September 2023.
The materials included microchips, semiconductors and silicon wafers, the raw material for manufacturing semiconductors.
“Microchips, which make up the majority of items shipped by Jatronics, are particularly notable due to their dual-use capabilities. For example, US-designed microchips have frequently been found in Russian cruise missiles, fighter jets and drones that have been intercepted or shot down,” C4ADS analyst Allen Maggard told Al Jazeera.
Jatronics made deliveries to eight different companies in Russia, according to the data.
They include OOO Planar, which was sanctioned by the US in March 2022.
At the time, the State Department stated that Planar “specializes in acquiring foreign technology for Russia’s military programs, including Russia’s military space programs.”
He added that Planar’s main customer was the Izhevsk Radio Factory, “which develops items and technologies for the Russian armed forces.”
The plant’s website claims its projects have included navigation systems for UAVs and lists Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, which oversees the country’s police force, among its “partners.”
The data also shows that Jatronics was sent to a Russian company called Design Center Kristal.
Design Center Kristal’s website says the company’s partners include Kamaz, Russia’s largest truck manufacturer, which was also under sanctions at the time of shipments from the U.S. and other Western governments to supply Russia’s military.
Maggard said Jatronics could have been aware of its customers’ military ties.
“Jatronics had the opportunity to recognize these companies’ connections with the Russian defense sector. Other exporters should learn to detect the numerous warning signs displayed by various Jatronics recipients,” he said.
While chipmakers themselves may not be familiar with these signals, Maggard added, they can hire companies that specialize in “due diligence” checks when doing business with Russia.
The latest US sanctions come as Malaysia tries to become an important hub in the global semiconductor supply chain, touting its geopolitical “neutrality”.
In April 2022, just weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Malaysia’s ambassador to Russia attracted controversy when he told Russian media that the country would consider “any request” for semiconductors.
In a keynote speech at the SEMICON Southeast Asia 2024 technology conference last week, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim presented his country as the ideal “neutral and non-aligned” host for semiconductor makers amid the tech war. -China and said its government would aim to attract US$100 billion in new investment.
While the policy may serve Anwar’s government economically and politically, by attracting foreign investors and resisting Western pressure to choose sides, it also makes domestic companies doing business abroad vulnerable to the kind of sanctions that have just been imposed. to Jatronics, said Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington.
“They are preparing them to be sanctioned. Malaysia is clearly under US surveillance right now,” Abuza told Al Jazeera.
In December, the US sanctioned four Malaysia-based companies for allegedly helping funnel drone parts to Iran, which Washington accuses of selling drones to Russia for use in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, a senior US Treasury Department official visited Malaysia to press the government about the sanctions risk it was running by allegedly allowing Iranian oil and funds for “terrorist groups” to flow through the country.
Commenting on the visit, the Malaysian government said it attaches more importance to sanctions imposed by the United Nations than those applied by individual countries.
But as the war in Ukraine rages on, Abuza said, the U.S. is likely to become even tougher on countries that appear to be helping its enemies.
“Americans really believe that we can help the Ukrainians achieve their strategic goals if we can actually stop Russian global supply chains that are trying to evade sanctions, and Malaysia has proven to be an important cog in the Russian machine,” he said.
The sanctions send the message that “yes, you can sell to the Russians, but you will lose access to US or European markets,” Abuza added.
“And so these sanctions are really a way of changing behavior, not just punishing. We are trying to send signals that selling to the Russians is very short-sighted in business terms.”
The Malaysian government’s main spokesman, Fahmi Fadzil, did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment on the new sanctions.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
