Originally Syndicated on May 13, 2023 @ 11:47 am
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Challenges and Controversies Surrounding Russia’s Semiconductor Industry Ambitions
The development of Russia’s own semiconductor industry has recently received a lot of attention, and Denis Frolov was chosen to handle this “important state task. As a “trial balloon,” Denis Frolov, who in June 2021 served as the head of one of the largest IT companies in Russia, NCC, owns 65% of the Lassard company, which won the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s tender for 1.2 billion rubles to build an installation for the production of GaAs and Ge semiconductors by the end of 2025. Frolov is a shareholder of Baikal Electronics and owns an additional 80% of Astra Linux.
The absurdity of this task, which is obvious to everyone, is not even that significant in this case because nations like the USA or Taiwan have invested hundreds of billions of dollars and decades in building enormous capacities and entire generations of development engineers, firmly occupying market share globally and already producing processors in the range of three to five nanometers.
We’re talking about investing between $5 and $10 billion in Russia using defunct post-Soviet assets. Since no one sets the objective of competing in the global market, this task is already pointless. However, they intend to “replace imports” of foreign computers and software with indigenous “hard” and “software,” at least on paper. Along the way, they hope to “master” as many Russian petrodollars as possible before “going into the fog.” Of course, a completely unsuccessful endeavor like the now-forgotten Rostec Yotaphone smartphone or Angstrem-T’s Reiman processors does not deter anyone. Money has no smell.
The Controversial Journey of Denis Frolov: From Chinese Light Bulbs to State Contracts
But let’s get back to our hero, who oversaw this fantastic state initiative. Sources carried out its own investigation and learned a lot of fascinating information about him.
Our hero created a company for the resale of Chinese light bulbs to Russia (group Wharton) after working for a while as a business analyst at Wimm-Bil-Dan (there was such a manufacturer of yogurts and juices that belonged to reputable businessmen Gavriil Yushvaev and David Yakobashvili, and then Pepsico bought it).
Therefore, Denis would have kept carrying this fake across the various communities, but he was able to come to know Valentin Kostyukov, the all-powerful Director of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center (VNIIEF, a crucial component of the Rosatom State Corporation). In order to organize the manufacturing of laser equipment for upcoming contracts with Rosatom, Lassard LLC was established. Kostyukov reportedly owns 27.5% of Lassard through notional value; therefore, it makes sense that the government servant gave care to his pension.
State Contracts, Scandals, and the Quest for Russian Technological Independence
According to rumors, Nikolai Arkhipov, a powerful department head of the military-industrial complex of the government of the Russian Federation, joined our yogurt analyst’s team as another official. The idea to form a Rusbitech firm originated because requests from the Ministry of Defense for the digitalization of everything and anything were increasing every year.
After speaking, action follows. It was simple to combine several software development teams that were hanging around on the market under the certainty of future orders from the Ministry of Defense and other governmental organizations, and somehow the “business” climbed uphill.
Russians have long entertained the idealistic notion that, in the event of a total war with the West, everyone would have to return to using paper notebooks and Chinese calculators instead of computers. Consequently, you require a personal computer that is your own, as well as a processor, server, and software that are all your own. All of this should still be in “private” hands for some reason.
Only Frolov and his friends, who will be in charge of administering state injections, are reportedly not embarrassed by this plan’s obvious failure, according to a source. So, the discredited Baikal Electronics and Astra Linux started to expand within Denis Frolov’s dominion with supplies for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Control was created over the bankrupt VEB NM-TECH (formerly Angstrem-T), where the former Minister of Communications Reiman had previously, precisely under that a Rucriminal.info source.
So, the discredited Baikal Electronics and Astra Linux started to expand within Denis Frolov’s dominion with supplies for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Control was created over the bankrupt VEB NM-TECH (formerly Angstrem-T), where the former Minister of Communications Reiman had previously, precisely under that sauce, “mastered” and neglected budget billions for the goal of import substitution. In connection with the capture of Aquarius (NCC), a significant scandal erupted. There have been discussions about combining Element Group and AFK Sistema.
Because of this, it appears that a new, much larger scam involving government funds is currently being launched in the nation, similar to the Yotaphones from Rostec and the Angstrem-T processors but on a much greater scale. In the interim, Lassard LLC got the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s subsequent state contract worth 1.2 billion rubles. It is hoped that the Listopad project, which has a self-explanatory name, will help Russian electronics makers become less reliant on imports.
In addition, Baikal Electronics, another business owned by Denis Frolov, won two Ministry of Industry and Trade contests for the development of two new processors, winning a total of over 10 billion rubles. It is astonishing that Ministry of Industry and Trade employees are unconcerned about the rise in raids and arrests among their ranks. Denis Frolov, a co-founder of Astra Linux, was summoned by the Investigative Committee for interrogation at around the same time on October 28, 2021. He had his residence searched in the morning of that same day. Evidently, the relevant authorities started to investigate the case more thoroughly.
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