Banks in Armenia, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong, due to the risk of sanctions, began to block payments from Russian companies for electronics supplied through parallel imports. Kommersant writes about this, citing sources in the industry.
In particular, payment does not go through for servers, chips, processors and other telecom equipment for legal entities from Russia. Because of this, according to the source of the publication, Russian companies will have to import this electronics under the "alternative" codes of the TN VED (commodity nomenclature for foreign economic activity).
As Kommersant recalls, last year the Minister of Economy of Armenia Vahan Kerobyan emphasized that Armenian banks "carefully monitor not to fall under sanctions." Kazakh banks have also tightened control, experts say.
“It is impossible to purchase components, spare parts, computers, etc. directly from the manufacturing country, but through third countries it is becoming more and more difficult, so in six months or a year we may face a shortage of sanctioned products,” warns the CEO of the logistics company Optimalog » George Vlastopulo.
In April, Vedomosti wrote that the Hong Kong Bank refused to service a Russian company from the sanctions list.
After large-scale sanctions of the Russian Federation and the withdrawal of foreign companies, the Russian authorities decided to legalize “parallel imports”. For example, this is how new iPhones from the CIS countries enter the country, that is, without the official permission of the copyright holder. Despite the ban, the government of the Russian Federation included Apple products in the list of goods imported in this way, the consequences of such a decision are a higher price of goods and a decrease in the quality of service. Thus, many other goods are imported into the Russian Federation, and in November 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade included alcoholic beverages in this list. As part of the so-called parallel imports, Jack Danielʼs, Jim Beam, White Horse, Bushmills whiskeys, Sauza tequila, Jägermeister, Kahlua and Malibu liqueurs also enter the country. Earlier, The Insider spoke with analysts and business representatives and learned how the parallel import mechanism is already working in the consumer electronics, clothing and cosmetics markets.