A look at Russia’s scramble to access semiconductors, transformers, and other high-tech parts for weapons, many of which are sanctioned, for the Ukraine war (Politico)

Tristan Fiedler / Politico:
NXP Semiconductors’ CEO estimates the EU must invest €500B to hit its goal of a 20% global share in chips by 2030, well short of the EU Chips Act’s €43B package  —  DRESDEN — The leader of one of Europe’s most prominent microchips companies on Thursday warned the bloc’s intended investment …

New York Times:
An investigation, based on ~160K documents from Roskomnadzor, details Russia’s vast surveillance and censorship apparatus, which helps Putin maintain his regime  —  Four days into the war in Ukraine, Russia’s expansive surveillance and censorship apparatus was already hard at work.

Max Seddon / Financial Times:
Sources: Yandex seeks Putin’s assent for restructuring, including selling its Russian business and spinning off key global projects in edtech and other sectors  —  Yandex, the company often described as “Russia’s Google”, is seeking Vladimir Putin’s blessing to sell its operations in the country …

Mark Scott / Politico:
How the North Atlantic Fellas Organization, or NAFO, a group of national security experts and ordinary Twitter users, is using memes to fight Russian propaganda  —  Ivana Stradner opened her iPhone and typed a simple call-to-arms: Unleash the hounds.  —  A Washington think-tanker and an expert …

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Solana cofounders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal scramble to move past FTX’s stain on their token, down 96% from November 2021; FTX and Alameda bought 58M+ SOL  —  Solana, the blockchain network once championed by Sam Bankman-Fried, is drawing immense scrutiny as industry watchers wonder whether …

New York Times:
Sources: Biden’s crackdown on Chinese tech exports was driven by fears over China using supercomputers and AI to develop weapons and crack encrypted messaging  —  U.S. officials pushed to choke off China’s access to critical semiconductor technology after internal debates and tough negotiations with allies.