The government is considering a scenario in which one organization will purchase sanctioned electronics. Experts believe that a single buyer will allow suppliers of foreign equipment to avoid sanctions restrictions, since such a mechanism allows hiding information about the final customer. However, not everyone agrees with the effectiveness of such an initiative.
The Government is considering an option in which the purchase of computers and telecom equipment will be carried out by one organization. The initiative is spelled out in the draft plan of priority actions to ensure the development of the Russian economy in the face of external sanctions pressure. RBC writes about this.
The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Finance (Ministry of Finance) and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) have been appointed responsible for determining the consolidated procurement contractor. The document does not specify exactly how such a mechanism will work, and why it is necessary. According to the source of RBC, a single buyer will allow suppliers of foreign equipment to avoid sanctions restrictions. That, in turn, will reassure suppliers and companies that need equipment, he believes.
Such a mechanism can also simplify the search for procurement financing in the event of suppliers switching to advance payments, another interlocutor of RBC explains. Also, a single buyer can simplify the provision of support measures to companies, for example, in the form of subsidizing the loan rate.
The representative of the Ministry of Finance redirected the question of RBC to the Ministry of Finance. RBC sent a question to the Ministry of Finance and Government. A representative of the FAS told the publication that they had not received the document.
After the start of the military special operation on Ukraine at the end of February 2022, the United States and other countries imposed sanctions against our country. Among them are restrictions on the import of high-tech products to Russia, including microelectronics, computers, telecommunications equipment, etc.
Lawyer Pen & Paper Kira Vinokurova told RBC that the consolidated procurement contractor will make it possible to hide information about the final customer. She believes that such a mechanism will limit the dissemination of publicly available information about a potential violation of the sanctions regime of foreign jurisdictions. Such information can be used to extend sanctions to companies that cooperate with persons already included in the sanctions lists.
Vinokurova also noted that earlier the Ministry of Finance introduced new rules according to which purchases of state-owned companies that have fallen under foreign sanctions will not be placed in a single information system.
Expert on foreign economic activity of BMS Law Firm Nikita Matyukhov doubts that such a procurement mechanism will avoid a ban on the import of prohibited products. In his opinion, a single buyer will simplify the application of sanctions to the West, since it will be easier to track the consolidated flow of goods. "The risks of secondary sanctions for participants in such a chain are obviously more likely than, in simple terms, for shuttles," he believes.
According to Matyukhov, such a mechanism could work if a consolidated supplier imported sanctioned goods from loyal, neutral in relation to sanctions against Russia countries. "For example, if in conditional An intermediary company will be used in Kazakhstan, which would play the role of an end consumer or a local distributor for a foreign manufacturer who is unwilling or unable to supply certain goods for Russia," he says.
"Under the conditions of sanctions and restrictions on foreign economic activity, a consolidated executor can work at the level of intergovernmental agreements and better control the spending of foreign currency," - speaking about the logic of the Government, the director of the Association of Manufacturers of Computer and Information Technologies (APKIT) and chairman of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the Development of the Digital Economy notes Nikolai Komlev.
At the same time, Komlev stipulates that the state should understand that such a consolidated performer will quickly get blacklisted. He hopes that the Government will not destroy the IT market with such a step.
