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Smart Impex: Company to supply Russia with electronics

The end of February marks the first anniversary of Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. While the German government has been doing much since the beginning to increase the attacked country’s defenses, it has now become known that a German company, of all things, is apparently providing strong support to the other side. For example, Smart Impex, based in Cologne, Germany, is said to have supplied Russia with electronic components, particularly for computer technology, but also for military purposes.

Smart Impex circumvents Russia sanctions

Meanwhile, while Ukraine is fighting back with heavy weapons against the invaders, a real economic war is raging between the EU and Russia. Here, they do not shoot with tanks, but instead rely on sanctions with economic consequences. It is precisely these sanctions that the Cologne-based company Smart Impex is said to have ignored. A report from the ARD program “Monitor” reveals that a large-scale raid by the Cologne public prosecutor’s office is said to have taken place on the morning of February 09. Place of the employment were apparently not only the business premises of Smart Impex, but also branch offices as well as private dwellings of the accused. The magazine cited extensive business relations between Smart Impex and Russia as the reason for the extensive searches. Thus, the company is said to have sold and supplied electronic goods worth $15.5 million.

Smart Impex doubts justification for raid

Due to the sanctions imposed by the West, it is not only difficult for Russia to get food at the moment. The electronics industry is also suffering massively from the war. In the fall of 2022, for example, it became known that Russia was even already buying defective semiconductor technology from China. Accordingly, the deliveries were probably accepted with thanks. The perfidious thing about it, however, is that the goods are said to have been used not only for the civilian use of computers. Instead, the electronics are also said to have been used for military purposes. This can be proven by the remains found in the electronics of Russian missiles. In order to circumvent the sanctions, Smart Impex is said to have simply bypassed them via Turkey. The self-proclaimed “wholesaler of IT products” is said to have used AZU, a company based in Turkey, as a middleman, so to speak, to sell its products to Russia.

Supplied even before the war

Although Smart Impex is based in Cologne, Germany, its dovetailing with Russia is close, Monitor also found out. Thus, the Moscow company “Fast Impex” received the electrical components. It is not only the similarity in names that is striking here. One of the founders of this company is also a shareholder in Smart Impex. However, the business relationship between the two companies did not begin with the war in Ukraine. Smart Impex was already delivering directly to Moscow before the war began. Due to the war and the sanctions that accompanied it, the company then had to take a detour via Turkey. There, the company AZU acted as an intermediary.

The founder of AZU is said to be a shareholder and also the managing director of Smart Impex. Meanwhile, the company itself is somewhat tight-lipped. When asked by WDR, the company stated that the accusations are currently being investigated. Smart Impex assumes, however, that all goods sold were not affected by the sanctions. Should the business be legal, however, one must ask why the complex triangular construct was set up via Turkey just in time for the start of the war. Monitor’s investigative journalists are said to have found out that those involved recently tried their best to cover their tracks.

Smart Impex just the tip of the iceberg?

Meanwhile, experts and also the reporters of the Monitor program assume that Smart Impex is by no means likely to be an isolated case. Rather, they are certain that Russia is being supplied with Western technology. Turkey seems to play an inglorious role in this. After all, the country appears again and again as a diversion point for the goods. What is most striking, he said, is the rapid growth in exports of electronics, as well as coveted semiconductors. If the technology still comprised just under 300,000 US dollars in 2021, it was probably an incredible 86 million US dollars in 2022. So this seems to be a large-scale circumvention of the sanctions decided by the EU.

Simon Lüthje

I am co-founder of this blog and am very interested in everything that has to do with technology, but I also like to play games. I was born in Hamburg, but now I live in Bad Segeberg.

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The end of February marks the first anniversary of Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. While the German government has been doing much since the beginning to increase the attacked country’s defenses, it has now become known that a German company, of all things, is apparently providing strong support to the other side. For … (Weiterlesen...)

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