UK company evades sanctions by supplying USD 1.2 billion of electronics to Russia

The Financial Times reports that Mykines Corporation has been shipping cargo to Russia since the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine, including semiconductors, servers, laptops, computer components, telecommunications networking equipment, and consumer electronics. The documents, obtained by the Financial Times, list brands such as Huawei, H3C, Intel, AMD, Apple and Samsung.

It is noted that products worth at least USD 982 million sent by Mykines are on the list of those prohibited for delivery to Russia under British export restrictions. The vast majority of the 10,600 consignments sent to Russia were received by a company registered in Moscow, Marsala. It may be closely linked to Merlion, a major electronics distributor in Russia.

 “All businesses registered in the UK are bound by law to comply with the Russia sanctions regime. We take potential breaches very seriously, but do not discuss the details of how we enforce trade sanctions for specific cases,”the British government spokesperson said.

Mykines had been operating in Russia before the invasion of Ukraine, but records show that its business in the country has skyrocketed since the war began. Selling these products to Russia without UK government authorization could be a violation of sanctions.

• Microsoft will pay almost 3 million dollars for violating the US sanctions regime against Russia, as well as Cuba, Iran and Syria.