“Everything is gone”: Russian business hit hard by tech sanctions

Export controls and sanctions have plunged Russia into technological crisis.

“Everything is gone”: Russian business hit hard by tech sanctions

Enlarge (credit: vladimir18 | Getty Images)

Russian companies have been plunged into a technological crisis by Western sanctions that have created severe bottlenecks in the supply of semiconductors, electrical equipment, and the hardware needed to power the nation’s data centers.

Most of the world’s largest chip manufacturers, including Intel, Samsung, TSMC and Qualcomm, have halted business to Russia entirely after the US, UK, and Europe imposed export controls on products using chips made or designed in the US or Europe.

This has created a shortfall in the type of larger, low-end chips that go into the production of cars, household appliances, and military equipment. Supplies of more advanced semiconductors, used in cutting-edge consumer electronics and IT hardware, have also been severely curtailed.

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Wenn eine Friedensdelegation die Belange Deutschlands verletzt

Vor fast einem Jahr erhielten Teilnehmende einer Delegation in die Autonome Region Kurdistan Ausreiseverbot. Jetzt wollen sie die Rechtswidrigkeit der Maßnahme feststellen lassen

Vor fast einem Jahr erhielten Teilnehmende einer Delegation in die Autonome Region Kurdistan Ausreiseverbot. Jetzt wollen sie die Rechtswidrigkeit der Maßnahme feststellen lassen

After 9 difficult months, Firefly is set to take its next shot at orbit

The launch company is targeting mid-July for Alpha’s next launch.

Firefly's second Alpha rocket is shipped from its test site in Texas to California in May.

Enlarge / Firefly's second Alpha rocket is shipped from its test site in Texas to California in May. (credit: Firefly)

Nine months have passed since Firefly's Alpha rocket launched for the first time, lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Unfortunately, one of the rocket's four main engines failed about 15 seconds into the flight, and the rocket was lost about two minutes later.

The period since then has been a difficult one for the company and its founder, Tom Markusic. In addition to dissecting the cause of the Alpha failure, Firefly also ran afoul of rules set by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, CFIUS.

In December, the Air Force blocked Firefly from working at the Vandenberg launch site due to these CFIUS complications with the company's primary investor, Ukrainian Max Polyakov. Eventually, the issue was resolved this spring after Polyakov sold his interest in Firefly, and Firefly regained access to the launch site. But it was a messy and distracting situation at a time when Firefly needed to focus on reaching orbit.

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