The email reads:
“Haas no longer supplies machines, replacement parts or anything else to companies in Russia. Claims to the contrary are false.”
But our research casts doubt on that account. Customs records viewed by “NewsHour” show that shipments continued for months after the start of the Russian invasion. From March 4 through October last year, at least 18 were shipped directly from Haas to Russia worth $2.8 million. Sanctions or not, the Russian arms industry depends on technology developed in other countries.
Agiya Zahrebelska is the head of the sanctions division of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the Ukrainian government agency that sets sanctions policy. She told the NewsHour that the problem was much broader than just Haas. Germany’s Siemens and Japan’s DMG Mori are also manufacturers of computer numerical control machine tools. Ukraine believes this is key to the survival of the Russian arms industry.
Agiya Zahrebelska, National Agency on Corruption Prevention: About 70 to 80 percent of a Russian machine industry is a Western machine, an imported machine.
You don’t have a guided missile, you don’t have a tank, you don’t have a gun, a simple gun, if you don’t have a CNC machine.