Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti on sale in Russia despite sanctions
Buying an Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti on Wildberries is possible today. Sanctions against Russia are once again shown to be leaking.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The 5070 Ti is on sale on Wildberries: sanctions under strain
In the middle of the war in Ukraine, and with Western sanctions designed to cut Russia off from cutting-edge semiconductors, an Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti graphics card has appeared for sale on Wildberries, the country's largest marketplace. The purchase is real: someone received the box, peine it and showed it in an unboxing that has sparked all kinds of comments. The question is not whether the order arrived, but how it got there.
Sanctions and their gaping holes
The case of the 5070 Ti is the tip of the iceberg of a parallel trade that official bodies have long failed to contain. The most common route is re-export: third countries buy electronic goods from the West and resell them to Russian intermediaries, often with fake certifications or simply without asking too many questions. Wildberries, with tens of millions of orders a day, is the perfect shop window. The question begs itself: how is this possible? Don't the sanctions work?
The short answer is: not entirely. Export controls on dual-use technology have been tightened, but the global supply chain is too long and opaque to monitor every corner. The fact that a high-end GPU is openly advertised on Russia's main e-commerce portal suggests the gap is no longer a trickle but a motorway.
The Spanish screenwriter who moved to Russia and came back a critic
The human anecdote comes from a former Mediaset screenwriter, Juanjo Prego, who lost his job in the crisis and ended up teaching Spanish in Russia. Since returning, he has become one of the harshest critics of the country that gave him a second chance. For some, his attitude is that of someone biting the hand that fed him; for others, a legitimate denunciation. His shadow looms over a debate mixing anger at the war with sarcasm at the realisation that the Russian economy is still buying Western technology.
Meanwhile, the RTX 5070 Ti remains on sale. And with it, the awkward question: if Russians can get hold of the latest gaming hardware, what are the sanctions actually achieving?
In the middle of the war in Ukraine, and with Western sanctions designed to cut Russia off from cutting-edge semiconductors, an Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti graphics card has appeared for sale on Wildberries, the country's largest marketplace. The purchase is real: someone received the box, peine it and showed it in an unboxing that has sparked all kinds of comments. The question is not whether the order arrived, but how it got there.
Sanctions and their gaping holes
The case of the 5070 Ti is the tip of the iceberg of a parallel trade that official bodies have long failed to contain. The most common route is re-export: third countries buy electronic goods from the West and resell them to Russian intermediaries, often with fake certifications or simply without asking too many questions. Wildberries, with tens of millions of orders a day, is the perfect shop window. The question begs itself: how is this possible? Don't the sanctions work?
The short answer is: not entirely. Export controls on dual-use technology have been tightened, but the global supply chain is too long and opaque to monitor every corner. The fact that a high-end GPU is openly advertised on Russia's main e-commerce portal suggests the gap is no longer a trickle but a motorway.
The Spanish screenwriter who moved to Russia and came back a critic
The human anecdote comes from a former Mediaset screenwriter, Juanjo Prego, who lost his job in the crisis and ended up teaching Spanish in Russia. Since returning, he has become one of the harshest critics of the country that gave him a second chance. For some, his attitude is that of someone biting the hand that fed him; for others, a legitimate denunciation. His shadow looms over a debate mixing anger at the war with sarcasm at the realisation that the Russian economy is still buying Western technology.
Meanwhile, the RTX 5070 Ti remains on sale. And with it, the awkward question: if Russians can get hold of the latest gaming hardware, what are the sanctions actually achieving?
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (10 replies).
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