International sanctions have disrupted the delivery to Russia of its "indigenous" CPUs from foreign plants, according to Maksut Shadayev, the country's minister of digital development.
Reporting to a meeting of the State Duma, Shadayev revealed that just 15,000 PCs and 8,000 servers powered by Elbrus and Baikal CPUs were assembled in Russia in 2022.
He added that "the number could have been higher if foreign partners had fulfilled their contractual delivery obligations".
"Foreign manufacturers that fab our processors based on Russian design have refused to fulfill orders in 2022, including shipping already produced and ready chips," said Shadayev.
The Baikal and Elbrus CPUs are nominally "Russian" and "domestically made", but were actually fabbed in Taiwan, as Russia lacks the necessary production facilities to manufacture its own what it calls "indigenous" microchips. The country is, however, hoping to begin local manufacturing by 2028.
In mid-September, the US imposed sanctions on both Baikal Electronics and the Elbrus microchip developer MCST.
Russian defense and commercial companies rely heavily on foreign-made microchips, with Russian engineers having provided the design specifications and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) assembling the chips.
TSMC ceased production of Russian-designed Baikal and Elbrus microchips following the invasion of Ukraine in February due the sanctions and in response, Russia listed Taiwan as an "unfriendly country".
Russia has also been hit by a ban on exports of China's Loongson processors, according to reports. The Chinese government has reportedly recognised the technology as strategically important for its military-industrial complex, restricting exports to Russia and other countries. Russia had been considering using Loongson processors as an alternative to parallel imports of Intel products, which could be blocked by further US sanctions.
