T-Platforms are on the list of US enemies



    According to the decision of the US Department of Commerce on March 8, 2013 , the Russian company T-Platforms was included in the "List of organizations and individuals acting contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests" ( Supplement No. 4 to Part 744 ). The decision states that the American Bureau of Industry and Security has reason to believe that the activities of T-Platforms are related to the development of computer systems for military purposes and the production of computers for nuclear research (who the hell would have thought).

    In practice, this means that in accordance with the Export Administration Regulations, the presumption of a ban is introduced for T-Platforms on March 8for export and re-export of processors with a capacity of more than 5 GFlops, as well as any goods and products manufactured in the USA or using American technologies in other countries of the world. To export or re-export T-Platforms are required to obtain licenses from the Bureau of Industry and Security.

    Expert Magazine quotesCEO and co-owner of the company Vsevolod Opanasenko: “Roughly speaking, we [now] cannot buy sunflower oil if the field on which the sunflower grows is pollinated by American pesticides.” “The restrictions imposed block the possibilities not only for acquiring electronic components in the United States, but also for ordering chips independently developed by T-Platform specialists at any factory in the world, since all factories use American technology. For T-Platforms, this means an actual “ban on the profession,” says Valery Fadeev, editor-in-chief of Expert.

    Of the known achievements of T-Platforms, the construction of the Lomonosov supercomputer for MSUranked 26th on the Top500 list as of November 2012, as well as the supply of a supercomputer to New York State University in October 2012. At a tender held by an American educational institution, T-Platforms managed to get around Dell and HP.

    According to Ivan Pokrovsky, Director General of the Information and Analytical Center for Contemporary Electronics, the American regulatory authorities act very formally, and T-Platforms, as the end user of electronic components, could be subject to distribution because it used some other services blacklisted structure. However, according to Valery Fadeev, T-Platforms came to the attention of the US government back in 2011, and in 2012, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a conversation with Angela Merkel, emphasized that cooperation with Russia in such a sensitive area as high-performance computing is undesirable.

    This is not the first time that the US government has restricted high-tech exports. Everyone knows the story of the happy ending of Phil Zimmermann and his brainchild PGP . However, the processor, unlike the source code, does not fall under the first amendment to the US Constitution, therefore, Americans have the opportunity to limit their exports and re-exports to the extent that they consider necessary for their foreign policy goals. How much it will hit IT companies around the world, we will find out in the coming years.

    EDIT 02/18/2014 In August 2013, T-Platforms appealed the decision of the Ministry of Commerce. A thousand-page appeal was reviewed for 4 months, and top-level Russian and American officials were involved in the discussion of the problem. As a result, on December 31, 2013, export restrictions were lifted. Read more here .

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