‘Dual use’ export ban costs the Netherlands 400 million
Last year, the Netherlands exported more than 400 million euros worth of goods to Russia that can be used in warfare, according to research by BNR. Due to the coming strikes in Russia now, because of the income in Ukraine, these are now coming to a standstill.
It concerns goods that can serve both a military and a civilian purpose. Last year, the Netherlands exported, among other things, software for use in nuclear power stations, herpes and rabies virus to Russia, but mostly it concerned information technology.
Russia was top market in 2021
A license is required for the export of dual-use goods outside the EU. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes an overview of the value of these exports. An inventory by BNR showed that Russia was one of very important markets for such products. The total value of the export amounted to 401 million euros. Only China was a final destination for dual-use goods. The export to this country was worth 430 million euros.
On February 25, the export of dual-use goods to Russia was banned by the European Commission, one day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Dutch state granted a final export license the same day.
The Register of Foreign Affairs does not mention which products went to Russia, only that it concerns ‘information security’. Also the identity of the exporters. “We are already trying to get a little bit of knowledge about the type of products, without success,” says Martin van Stop de Wapenhandel. According to Broek, it is clear that this mainly concerns partial products. “The French shoot a satellite into the sky, but the parts are made here.”
Data Diode Russian Hydroelectric Power Plants
According to cybersecurity expert Ronald Prins, an IT product can quickly fall into the ‘dual-use’ category. For example, FOX-IT, the company of which Prins was co-founder, made a connecting piece through which internet traffic can only pass in one direction: a shaped data diode. “The Russians used that to secure their hydroelectric power plants,” says Prins. The dams became unhackable, remotely. The export of this product was already banned in 2014, says Prins. “She also occasionally orders hospitals. That is no longer possible.”
Prins has doubts about much of the information technology supplied in the past years now being deployed militarily. “The Russians will never be so stupid as to almost order from us.”