75% of Russia's Satellite Electronics Come From US

schwit1 writes: One Russian aerospace industry expert noted today that three-quarters of all their satellite electronics comes from the United States: "According to [Nikolay Testoyedov], up to 75 percent of the electronic components for Russian satellites come from the US. Consequently, if it retaliates should Moscow refuse to sell RD-180 rocket motors to Washington — which Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has threatened — Russia's satellite program would be frozen for at least two years. "The imported electronic components in our satellites represent 25 to 75 percent of the total in communications; in military ones, somewhat less; in commercial ones, more," Testoyedov says. Of these imported components, approximately 83-87 percent come from the United States thus giving Washington the whip hand." If we stop providing these electronics he estimates that after their present stock runs out in about a year it would take at least two years before Russia could replace these American-made parts. As the above linked article at The Interpreter mentions, this is relevant in part because of recent talks about U.S. sanctions which could affect this kind of commerce.

Comments

Russia can't win

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why Putin cannot afford to retaliate with their own economic sanctions. Economically, they are about the same size as Italy. Putin and his cronies can talk as much as they want to about shunning the West economically (or not cooperating with America in space), but if it really came to a trade war, Russian society and their military would suffer far more than America and the rest of the West. Aside from oil/gas exports, Russia makes nothing of use for the West.

If I were an official in Russia, I would just keep my mouth shut about sanctions and just hope everything blows over in a year.

Re:Russia can't win

[Tailhook]

Russia probably could shut down all trade and be self-sufficient

They tried that. They couldn't feed themselves reliably.

After 70 years of misery and decline they stopped and embarked on a new era of misery and decline, eased substantially by limited trade with the West.

They have the resources to be self sufficient. They even have the knowledge. Unfortunately, that's not enough.

To close the loop you need a functioning market of industry and ideas where property rights are respected and investors and entrepreneurs can flourish. Russians don't do that. Their culture is rotten right to the core with corruption. It's been that way since the czars, it was that way right through the commie era and it remains that way today, and any honest Russian will tell you exactly that.

So no, they can't be self sufficient. They'd be starving again inside 10 years. The grain haulers would be corralled in the switch yard of some apparatchik gang while Russians boil grass in the dark.

The best thing we can do for ourselves and the rest of the species is keep our foot firmly on their neck until they stop using force in Europe. Or until they end up under China's thumb. Which ever comes first.