Recent trends in Russia's import substitution of technology products

Russia has long aimed at reducing its dependency on imported technology. These aspirations intensified after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and sanctions restricting Russia's access to foreign technology. We analyze Russian company surveys and a small sample of product-level statistical data to evaluate recent trends in Russia's import substitution of technology products. For the goods included in our sample, import substitution seems quite limited. Instead, Russian companies have replaced many sanctioned imports with similar or equivalent goods from other countries. Shortfalls of certain goods suggest unavailability of adequate import substitutes and the inability of domestic production to make up for the lost imports.