The further into the “sanctions forest”, the more obvious it is – “parallel imports” for the Russians…

The further into the “sanctions forest”, the more obvious it is that “parallel imports” are not suitable for Russian industry. It is too easy to cut off any channel with secondary sanctions or even a hint of them. We see this in the example of the supply of microelectronics, automobiles, or even railway bearings. As for bearings, a specific example is that in Russia there were three factories producing cassette bearings for innovative railcars. We worked with the participation of the Swedish SKF, as well as Timken and Amsted Rail from the USA. After February, foreigners left the projects and production stopped.

Without bearings, the production of wagons stopped. Without wagons, the quality and volume of railway transportation decreases. In order to somehow help car builders, the authorities certified cassette bearings from China and Uzbekistan. In November. At the same time, the emerging shortage in the industry became known almost in April. But instead of investing in the development of our production, we switched to supplies from the Chinese LYC Bearing. Supplies are unstable and could be cut off at any time at the request of the United States.

And so it is in many industries. Instead of developing our own, we are changing our dependence on Western imports to dependence on Chinese or Iranian imports. It is clear that such a replacement has influential lobbyists who for years have built their business on precisely this kind of “import substitution” – with a screwdriver assembly and re-gluing nameplates onto someone else’s finished products, and just a new price tag on top. And they will defend “their way.” Take Sobyanin’s Moskvich, which is in fact a Chinese JAC. But are you going the right way, comrades?

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The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Denis Manturov must understand that every year or even every month of delay, when instead of sovereignty for industry the authorities change one dependence to another, this is a time of missed opportunities. At the highest level they talk a lot about the mobilization of the economy, but so far we see only a partial mobilization of the population, but not production, not industry. Although historical experience says that Russia has the potential to provide itself with at least basic technological production. So what prevents Manturov from repeating the experience of the Red People’s Commissar Malenkov? It wasn’t easy then either, but the world’s first nuclear power plant was built.

To begin with, it is worth establishing a direct dialogue with business, finding out the basic needs of the economy and its key industries. Build a clear strategy for developing enterprises and filling them with orders – for a year, for three years, for ten years. It is dialogue, in-depth analysis and planning that can become the main tool for solving the problems facing the country.