Russia/Ukraine conflict

[MC3OZ]

That's been a story lately. When I first saw it I was wondering if it was some kind of joke, but apparently the Maldives have set up some foundries and the Russians have been buying heavily from the Maldives. Falls into the "weird but true" category.

I wonder where the Maldives is getting the water and the expertise,

I would guess that they are desalinating sea water.

Having been there sometime ago, my memory is that it takes 20 minutes to walk around the perimeter of many inhabited islands, (small coral cays) so there isn't a lot of land to play with.

I would guess that the expertise and workforce is mostly coming from India, the money is coming from somewhere like Saudi Arabia.

Being a Moslem country, they always got a lot of help from other Moslem countries.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I wonder where the Maldives is getting the water and the expertise,

I would guess that they are desalinating sea water.

Having been there sometime ago, my memory is that it takes 20 minutes to walk around the perimeter of many inhabited islands, (small coral cays) so there isn't a lot of land to play with.

I would guess that the expertise and workforce is mostly coming from India, the money is coming from somewhere like Saudi Arabia.

Being a Moslem country, they always got a lot of help from other Moslem countries.

From what I can find, Maldives makes none of the chips. They are just being used as a shell location by freight forwarders to bypass sanctions against Russia.
Maldives: Small island nation with big role shipping chips to Russia

 

[wdolson]

From what I can find, Maldives makes none of the chips. They are just being used as a shell location by freight forwarders to bypass sanctions against Russia.
Maldives: Small island nation with big role shipping chips to Russia

I've seen articles saying they are both making them and re-exporting them. I thought it odd that the Maldives would be making them.

 

[MC3OZ]

I've seen articles saying they are both making them and re-exporting them. I thought it odd that the Maldives would be making them.

I also find that extremely odd.

Unpacking boxes, repacking them with different labels, perhaps adding "Made in Maldives" in a few places I can believe.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I've seen articles saying they are both making them and re-exporting them. I thought it odd that the Maldives would be making them.

From a quick search, I can find not even a single semiconductor plant in the Maldives. It makes zero sense for any semiconductor manufacturing to be based there. A search of general accounts of their economy, shows no mention of industrial or high tech manufacturing there:
What Are The Biggest Industries In the Maldives?

As others mentioned, the only believable "manufacturing" would simply be repacking of imported semiconductors and perhaps slapping on a label on it.

 

[wdolson]

From a quick search, I can find not even a single semiconductor plant in the Maldives. It makes zero sense for any semiconductor manufacturing to be based there. A search of general accounts of their economy, shows no mention of industrial or high tech manufacturing there:
What Are The Biggest Industries In the Maldives?

As others mentioned, the only believable "manufacturing" would simply be repacking of imported semiconductors and perhaps slapping on a label on it.

That might be what they're doing.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

That might be what they're doing.

It is.

Russia/Ukraine conflict

I think from the evidence I've seen, sanctions are working to an extent but they are by no means watertight and I don't think they ever will be. There are too many Western companies either complicit or turning a blind eye and others who haven't put enough effort in to manage their distribution...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[nativewolf]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1689560504480509952

Demining system at work in case someone didn't know what that looked like.

 

[unk45]

That's been a story lately. When I first saw it I was wondering if it was some kind of joke, but apparently the Maldives have set up some foundries and the Russians have been buying heavily from the Maldives. Falls into the "weird but true" category.

I rather think that the Maldives are buying and reselling rather than operating foundries.
FWIW the largest industrial factor in the Maldives is a fishery canning plant:

Home| Felivaru Fisheries Maldives |

www.felivaru.com.mv

The transshipment business supplying Russia appeared out of the ether suddenly last year, if the Nikkei is correct:

Maldives: Small island nation with big role shipping chips to Russia

$53m of chips transited Indian Ocean country 1 year after invasion, data shows

asia.nikkei.com

As a onetime visitor to that country I can absolutely be positive that a foundry would be impossible, not just improbable. No people to populate it, minimal capacity to support such an industry in any respect. Even most food must be imported.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

As I pointed out earlier, it's already been proven they are selling *U.S.* made chips to Russia.
The Maldives has a couple of phone repair shops and that is the sum total of their electronics industry.
But the bigger point is that nothing seems to be being done about it.

 

[stopcrazypp]

As I pointed out earlier, it's already been proven they are selling *U.S.* made chips to Russia.
The Maldives has a couple of phone repair shops and that is the sum total of their electronics industry.
But the bigger point is that nothing seems to be being done about it.

From my experience in commerce, the US Department of Commerce will look upstream and then privately inform US companies trading with upstream buyers that the buyer is potentially aiding in violating sanctions and to reconsider continuing doing business with them. If that buyer is a small company and is not critical to the seller, most sellers will take the hint right there and no further action is needed. This type of thing happens regularly in commerce, so there won't be a lot of public reporting on it.

The problem with this approach is it's very indirect and from the gist I get, Maldives is the 2nd or later stop and may be a smaller volume of the overall business that the direct buyer (which from articles the largest ones are London or Hong Kong based) is doing with US companies. For example, if the chips being diverted to Russia is only 10% (random number) of the overall business with a given buyer and the rest is going to completely legit business, it's very hard to tell a US vendor to completely stop doing business with them.

The most direct way is to get Maldives to stop such shipments, but doing so will require diplomacy (mainly lots of foreign aid, as mentioned in previous discussions). According to a Nikkei article, on that front, the Maldives have largely switched to Indian and Chinese based foreign aid, both countries having relatively close ties to Russia. That is perhaps is why Maldives were chosen to be a forwarding country (along with its geographic location).

Maldives: Small island nation with big role shipping chips to Russia

$53m of chips transited Indian Ocean country 1 year after invasion, data shows

asia.nikkei.com

 

[navguy12]

I just finished reading:

The book was finished prior to the invasion of Ukraine, but the afterward was written after the war started.

I would recommend anyone interested in Putin’s reasons for the invasion to give it a read.

Two screen shot (Kindle) pages from near the very end of the book; the whole book brings great context to his conclusions:

and a few Kindle pages later…

 

[bkp_duke]

I rather think that the Maldives are buying and reselling rather than operating foundries.
FWIW the largest industrial factor in the Maldives is a fishery canning plant:

Home| Felivaru Fisheries Maldives |

www.felivaru.com.mv

The transshipment business supplying Russia appeared out of the ether suddenly last year, if the Nikkei is correct:

Maldives: Small island nation with big role shipping chips to Russia

$53m of chips transited Indian Ocean country 1 year after invasion, data shows

asia.nikkei.com

As a onetime visitor to that country I can absolutely be positive that a foundry would be impossible, not just improbable. No people to populate it, minimal capacity to support such an industry in any respect. Even most food must be imported.

Probably a form of drop shipping, doesn't necessarily have to even touch the Maldives.

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

Ukraine's anti-corruption agency(?) has blacklisted Bacardi as an international sponsor of the Russian Dictator's illegal war in Ukraine. Bacardi is expanding in Russia and financed the war with over 1.2 billion rubles last year alone.

Bacardi includes brands such as Bacardi, Havana Club and Martini.

For a complete list of Bacardi brands:

Bacardi - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Bacardi - International sponsor of war | War and sanctions

Bacardi - International sponsor of war | War and sanctions

sanctions.nazk.gov.ua

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

"Russia releases history schoolbook praising Ukraine invasion​

Tue 8 Aug 2023 11.35 BST

[...] The book features sections on Russian soldiers “saving peace” in 2014, when Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine, which is repeatedly labelled as a “nazi state”. It also denounces western sanctions, describing them as worse than Napoleon, who marched on Russia in 1812.

The new history book also states that the “main goal” of the west is to “destabilize the situation inside Russia”, and casts Moscow as a victim of western aggression fighting for its very existence.

When describing the origins of the war in Ukraine, the book cites Putin, who has repeatedly claimed the invasion of Ukraine war started in order to “end the fighting started by the west”. The history book also describes Ukraine as an “artificial state”, parroting Putin’s long essay On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, which states that “Russia was robbed, indeed” when Ukraine gained independence in 1991. [..."

Russia releases history schoolbook praising Ukraine invasion

Textbook apparently written in just five months is part of Kremlin’s tightening of control over historical narrative in schools

www.theguardian.com

 

[DayTrippin]

Just saw this.

The Ukrainian offensive Has Petered Out -Even CNN Says It - Armed Forces Press

Yet, as one ‘war front’ bows out, an ‘out-of-view’ war on Black Sea shipping has raised its head.

armedforces.press

 

[iPlug]

U.S. is ramping up 155mm artillery round production. Many other Western countries doing the same.

​

…the U.S. is currently producing new [155mm] artillery rounds at a rate of 24,000 per month and is on track to produce in excess of 80,000 rounds per month over the following year.​

DOD Focuses on Readiness, Modernization as It Arms Ukraine

 

[madodel]

Just saw this.

The Ukrainian offensive Has Petered Out -Even CNN Says It - Armed Forces Press

Yet, as one ‘war front’ bows out, an ‘out-of-view’ war on Black Sea shipping has raised its head.

armedforces.press

That is an antiAmerican, pro-Putler propaganda site.

 

[DayTrippin]

Not saying I agree with it, but I've often learned the truth is somewhere between the 2 extremes. At the same time, most of the news sites have a bias, whether it is explicitly stated or not. So I take everything with a grain of salt, as the saying goes.

I don't believe the sites that say Ukraine is crushing Russia and as rosy of a forecast as they make it out to be. Based on what my extended family tells me who live in country, the Ukrainian losses have been pretty horrific, maybe not to the extent of Russia's but they can't afford to lose as many people either. I clearly want Ukraine to prevail but the longer this drags out, the more I believe Russia can win.

 

[madodel]

Not saying I agree with it, but I've often learned the truth is somewhere between the 2 extremes. At the same time, most of the news sites have a bias, whether it is explicitly stated or not. So I take everything with a grain of salt, as the saying goes.

I don't believe the sites that say Ukraine is crushing Russia and as rosy of a forecast as they make it out to be. Based on what my extended family tells me who live in country, the Ukrainian losses have been pretty horrific, maybe not to the extent of Russia's but they can't afford to lose as many people either. I clearly want Ukraine to prevail but the longer this drags out, the more I believe Russia can win.

If Ruzzia wins, Ukraine loses everything if the murdering fascists prevail, no matter what is on paper. Treaties with Putin are worthless. Ukraine needs to kill a lot more Ruzzians. As to "most of the news sites have a bias", it's not a "bias", that site is flat out propaganda. The Ukranians admit to defeats. The Ruzzians claim everything is a victory. It has been posted here many times that in Ruzzia there are lots of ways of saying "lie" because that is pretty much all they do.