US sanctions on Russia will impact India too

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, February 25

When the US last night imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, including on its military industrial complex, it left India to tread a fine balance between securing its military-equipment interests from Moscow while maintaining ties with Washington.

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A US statement narrates the sweeping restrictions on Russia’s military and strategic ambitions. “This includes measures against ‘military end users’, including the Russian Ministry of Defence,” the statement said.

India is one of biggest importers of Russia-produced military equipment and weapons. The sanctions entail that exports of all US items, including those produced in foreign countries (Europe, UK, Australia or Japan) using US-origin software, technology or equipment, will be restricted to targeted ‘military end users’.

Russia sources key software and hardware components from Europe for its military equipment. This includes displays inside copters, planes and warships. Also, aero engines of some aircraft come from Europe. “These restrictions will apply for technological goods critical to a diversified economy. This includes Russia-wide denial of exports of sensitive technology, primarily targeting the Russian defence, aviation and maritime sectors to cut off Moscow’s access to cutting-edge technology,” says the list of sanctions.

The ban will include restrictions on semiconductors, telecommunication, encryption security, lasers, sensors, navigation, avionics and maritime technologies. The US estimates it will restrict more than $50 billion in inputs to Russia’s military industrial complex.

Crucially, the sanctions say that “countries that adopt substantially similar export restrictions are exempted from new US licensing requirements for items produced in their countries”. This means the US will force its allies to not deal with Russia. The European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and the UK have already communicated their plans for parallel actions.