The Russian military is “cannibalising” chips from washing machines to support its war effort in Ukraine, the US ambassador to the EU has claimed.
Responding to a question about whether western sanctions had significantly impacted Russia’s economy, Mark Gitenstein told the US-Ireland economic summit that Moscow was being hindered from producing basic goods as the noose of sanctions tightened.
“I can only rely on what our military people tell me and they say that when you pick up a shot-down drone or a missile, that over time you can see the deterioration of the technology itself,” he said.
“This is particularly true of export controls. While they used to have chips in them that were manufactured in the US, now they’re having to cannibalise washing machines and it is just not as effective,” Mr Gitenstein told delegates at the event in the US ambassador’s residence in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
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He was speaking as the US and its G7 allies were expected to offer Ukraine a fresh $50 billion loan backed by interests accrued from frozen Russian government assets.
“In the end if we can bring the unity and common sense of purpose that we had in World War Two, which basically became an industrial war (that’s why we won that war) ... if that happens here it’s not even a contest, we will prevail but we’re not quite there yet,” he said.
Mr Gitenstein was speaking on the topic of “economic resilience in a fragmented world” on a panel with European Commissioner for financial services Mairead McGuinness
The EU and the US were working “in lockstep” on sanctions to destabilise Russia’s war machine, Ms McGuinness said.
“This is not an overnight exercise, this is going to be prolonged,” she said, while noting that Russia’s invasion had triggered a fragmentation of the global financial system and that was a risk that “had to be managed”.
Earlier on the topic of all-island prosperity and economic growth, Martin Shanahan, partner and head of FDI at Grant Thornton, said the ingredients for a successful economy and for attracting foreign investment continue to be political stability, economic stability and policy stability.
“Investors want to know what they are signing up to and to be sure it does what it says on the tin,” the former head of the IDA said.
On the issue of cybersecurity, Shawn Henry, chief security officer of tech company CrowdStrike warned that “bad actors” were increasingly looking to exploit new technologies.
He noted that democracies were increasingly being targeted by adversaries who were looking to sow discord, “to fracture their citizenry”. Mr Henry’s company was at the centre of a faulty software update that disabled millions of PCs in July.
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