Threats to stop deliveries of AMD and Intel to Russia, as well as stopping the production of Russian Baikals and Elbrus at the Taiwanese TSMC plant, look like an information attack. The reality of the implementation of these plans in the conditions prevailing in the modern microprocessor industry is close to zero.

The fact is that Russia today accounts for 80 percent of the market for sapphire substrates - thin plates made of artificial stone, which are used in opto- and microelectronics to build up layers of various materials, such as silicon. They are used in every processor in the world - AMD and Intel are no exception.

Russia position is even stronger in special chip etching chemistry using ultra-pure components. Russia accounts for 100 percent of the world supply of various rare earth elements used for these purposes.

The ban on finished products for Russia will result in a retaliatory ban on the supply of production components and will cause an acute shortage of processors for the whole world. By comparison, the end-2021 supply disruption situation will appear like no problem at all.

Same is true for neon - 90% of supply.

Banks VTB, Rossiya, Promsvyazbank and VEB fell under the sanctions. RF.
In addition, the Singapore authorities prohibit transactions with cryptocurrency, as well as limit the supply of dual-use items to Russia.

Against the backdrop of growing sanctions, the Russian authorities are urgently preparing support measures, among which the abolition of criminal and administrative liability for the use of pirated software "from countries that supported the sanctions" is being discussed. Such a move could temporarily mitigate the departure of Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and others from Russia, experts admit. H

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the table entitled “Plan of priority actions to ensure the development of the Russian economy in the face of external sanctions pressure”, which lists measures to support various sectors of the Russian economy dated March 2. According to a Kommersant source familiar with the situation, many departments participated in the development of the document, and the implementation of some of the measures has already begun.

According to the plan, to support Russian information technologies, a compulsory licensing mechanism is proposed for software, databases and topologies for integrated circuits. They may be subject to Art. 1360 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (according to it, the government of the Russian Federation has the right "in case of emergency" to decide on the use of an invention, utility model or industrial design without the consent of the patent owner). The authorities also propose to abolish criminal and administrative liability for the use of software unlicensed in the Russian Federation, "belonging to a copyright holder from countries that have supported the sanctions."

The American company - manufacturer of network and telecommunications equipment Cisco Systems has suspended work in Russia and Belarus.

“The company is ceasing business in Russia and Belarus, it will support employees, customers and partners in Ukraine and <...> will strengthen measures to protect Ukrainian organizations from cyber threats. We support Ukraine," Robbins' letter is quoted as saying.

According to a source close to the company, within 24 hours, it deactivates the accounts of communication equipment, which were used to update the device software. "This means that Russian companies will no longer be able to receive system updates from the cloud, while the equipment will not turn into a brick, but will continue to work",

Still love proprietary stuff from US? No?