It comes as US President Trump threatened to impose stiff tariffs and sanctions if a deal isn’t reached to end the war in Ukraine. A Russian draft law has proposed seven years imprisonment for publically disclosing information about the import of goods into Russia banned under global sanctions over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
![[Many Russian officials and businesspeople have been calling for logistics and payments information to be classified as a state secret]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/05/14/14/14135040-8954ac13-be36-4173-916d-de62e1eae4c9.jpg)
Russia continues to rely on many high-tech products made in the West, such as microchips, which are prohibited from being exported to Russia. Many Russian industrial businesses, especially those in the defence industry, depend on these products to remain in business.
![[Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in 2019]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/23/08/GettyImages-1152460846.jpg)
Russia has repeatedly been accused of bypassing Western sanctions by establisheding complex logistical schemes through intermediaries in third countries. “In the current context of external sanctions pressure, maintaining the established production and technological chains that ensure the strategic development of the Russian economy acquires special significance,” said an explanatory note for the draft submitted to parliament by the government.
Many Russian officials and businesspeople have been calling for logistics and payments information to be classified as a state secret. The authors of the draft referred to websites disseminating leaked customs data, as well as information appearing in traditional media or on social media about logistics schemes for delivering sanctioned goods.
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