American satellite equipment for the Russian Ministry of Defense and four years for termination of the contract due to sanctions.
One case in the Moscow Arbitration Court, which Sanctions Lists examined, showed that they wanted to supply satellite communications equipment for the Russian army from the United States.
The essence of the story is as follows: Voentelecom JSC appealed to the arbitration court (case no. A40-325127/25-183-2285), which is owned by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. At the end of 2021, just a few months before the outbreak of the conflict with Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense held a closed auction. According to the results of the auction, which was applied for by Voentelecom JSC, the company undertook to supply 334 sets of satellite routers to military unit 41101 by November 10, 2022. The contract price was 65 million rubles.
Voentelecom failed to deliver them. In the court’s materials, the reason for this is as follows: “due to the fact that the software for the satellite routers supplied under the Contract is unique, there are no analogues in Russia. Satellite routers are dual-use products, and therefore their supply from abroad is impossible under the conditions of sanctions.”
The court materials even indicated that only the UHP-200 satellite router manufactured by Comtech Technologies LLC fully met the technical requirements for the contract. This company is a subsidiary of the American Comtech Telecommunications Corp with headquarters in Melville (New York, USA).
Before signing the Voentelecom contract. Apparently, he was hoping to buy routers from another company. One of the potential suppliers was Race Telecom CJSC, which even sent a commercial offer to Voentelecom on November 16, 2021.
However, after contacting the Ministry of Defense, none of the suppliers agreed to supply the equipment to Voentelecom. None of the potential participants attended the procurement procedures organized by Voentelecom JSC three times during the contract period to select a supplier of goods.
“The Plaintiff’s (Voentelecom’s) repeated attempts to find a supplier for alternative delivery options through the territories of third countries (Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Israel) did not lead to a positive outcome,” according to the court’s materials.
As a result, the contract’s termination dragged on for several years, and it was only resolved by the arbitration court, which was approached by Voentelecom. On April 9, 2026, the court decided to terminate the contract. However, the Ministry of Defense may appeal this decision within a month from the date of its adoption to the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal.
