Russia struggles to shake reliance on foreign technology imports

{"text":[[{"start":11.13,"text":"Russia is struggling to reduce its dependence on critical foreign technologies after western sanctions severed Moscow from global supply chains, according to an internal government tally seen by the FT. "}],[{"start":25.42,"text":"The assessment, compiled by the economy ministry in February last year, lays bare the difficulty of weaning the country off western-made technologies since President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022."}],[{"start":41.510000000000005,"text":"Russia remains critically dependent on imports in areas at the heart of its war effort, including machinery, drone manufacturing and energy production, the document says. Efforts to expand non-energy exports and build the infrastructure needed to sustain production and overseas supply chains have also stalled."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":62.410000000000004,"text":"The report argues that a transformation of the Russian economy is imminent, predicting rapid gains in technological independence from foreign suppliers by 2030."}],[{"start":73.46000000000001,"text":"The assessment sets out a six-year plan to meet import substitution targets in critical industries by 2030, when Putin’s current presidential term is due to end. However, experts who reviewed the document said Russia’s projections were wildly optimistic."}],[{"start":90.91000000000001,"text":"“What really jumps out is when you compare the targets for 2030 to the figures for 2024. These are key technologies and industries for the war and for self-sufficiency more generally, and they are enormously dependent on imports,” said Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin. "}],[{"start":113.85000000000001,"text":"Putin complained in December that officials had yet to fully assess Russia’s “technological sovereignty” and set out a path to “technological leadership”."}],[{"start":124.59,"text":"“I understand that technological leadership projects are difficult and unusual, that they require solving a whole host of issues with supplying scientific resources and smoothing out industrial co-operation,” Putin said. “Nonetheless, we need to move faster.”"}],[{"start":142.67000000000002,"text":"Many of the sectors in which Russia is pushing for technological self-sufficiency have been hit hardest by western sanctions."}],[{"start":150.72000000000003,"text":"The Kh-101, one of Russia’s most advanced cruise missiles, can contain more than 50 different foreign-produced parts, including electronics made by US chipmakers including Texas Instruments, Analog Devices and Intel."}],[{"start":166.81000000000003,"text":"Sanctions forced Russia to pivot to China to replace parts it could no longer buy in the west. In 2023, China supplied 90 per cent of Russia’s imported microelectronics, according to a study by the Kyiv School of Economics."}],[{"start":183.35000000000002,"text":"The Russian drone industry relies heavily on Chinese suppliers. In mid-2025, Ukrainian analysis of a new Russian military drone, the Delta, found that its control motors, cameras, antennas, video transmitters, ignition modules, petrol engine, batteries, processors, sensors and controllers were all Chinese-made."}],[{"start":208.90000000000003,"text":"Meanwhile, the civil aviation industry has relied on smuggling networks to obtain parts for western-made aircraft, with the country’s airlines returning mothballed aircraft to service."}],[{"start":221.94000000000003,"text":"Efforts to build a passenger jet without western components have yet to bear fruit. Prototypes of the MC-21, a mid-sized passenger aircraft, began testing in 2025. The aircraft is made by Yakovlev, a subsidiary of Rostec, Russia’s state-owned defence conglomerate, and has had to be redeveloped after the company was cut off from western suppliers in 2022."}],[{"start":248.09000000000003,"text":"The document also envisages that the Russian private and public sectors will more than double their collective research and development spending to 2 per cent of GDP by 2030."}],[{"start":261.78000000000003,"text":"Heli Simola, a senior economist at the Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies, said the proposals are “unrealistic”, given Russia’s heavy dependence on imports."}],[{"start":274.53000000000003,"text":"“For many goals, they already have had to abandon some of the requirements because there are no domestic alternatives,” she said. “In some cases Chinese goods are simply labelled as Russian to achieve the targets.”"}],[{"start":288.82000000000005,"text":"The report forecasts that 80 per cent of companies in key sectors will use Russian software by 2030, up from 46 per cent in 2024. It also projects an increase in non-energy, non-commodity exports by two-thirds over the next years."}],[{"start":307.55000000000007,"text":"“The targets for 2030 look like a fantasy for Putin rather than a realistic plan,” said Prokopenko. “Given that they were still fine tuning their calculations in February last year, the bureaucracy does understand that any growth of domestic production to replace imports will be very limited.” "}],[{"start":336.00000000000006,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1769997465_6552.mp3"}