Russia ‘legalizes espionage’ to bolster military capabilities

Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted chief designers the authority to utilize foreign intellectual property without the rights holder's consent. This decree, published on the Legal Acts portal, allows designers to specify and integrate necessary foreign technologies, equipment, or software for weapons development, bypassing traditional licensing protocols.

This comes after Russia, under Putin’s directive, initiated the creation of a "compulsory licensing" body that issues permits for the use of foreign intellectual property without the consent of patent holders.

Denis Grekov, a political scientist and former lecturer at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), told The Media Line that the decree is essentially an open acknowledgment of Russia's severely outdated technological capabilities.

“It is a very candid statement that demonstrates Russia's extremely backward position in technology. This is evident anyway. Russia has some rather interesting weapon samples, which, nevertheless, still can hardly compete,” he said. 

“The war with Ukraine, which Putin started, shows this very well. The Russian army cannot boast serious successes. The only relatively decent thing they have is missile weapons and electronic warfare complexes. But, apparently, they cannot properly produce them without Western companies,” he said.

The decree also emphasizes the importance of conducting patent research during weapon design to ensure the competitiveness of new military equipment by evaluating existing technologies and market know-how.

This focus on patent research highlights Russia's intent to leverage existing global technologies to enhance its military capabilities swiftly.

Military expert David Sharp explained this to The Media Line: "When relations between different countries become very strained, there's less inclination to adhere formally to various norms or to feel embarrassed about it.” 

“Putin has openly stated that all efforts must be directed toward ensuring the military operation, as he put it, is successful. If this requires acting demonstratively so that no one thinks about any patents, then why not?"

Sharp elaborated that industrial espionage for military purposes has been a strong point of Soviet intelligence since the 1920s.

Justifying espionage

"Enormous attention was paid to this throughout the history of the USSR because there was naturally a lag in technology. Therefore, stealing ideas or products was always of paramount importance. Putin grew up with this, and it is given enormous significance, especially now when Russia is under sanctions and at war," he said.

“An officially signed decree legalizing espionage is a certain declaration. It means that Russia is withdrawing from all systems of legal interaction, buying and selling patents, and so on,” added Grekov. 

He also explained that technological espionage has always been present and is important for military affairs.

“The difference is that due to the high integration of technology and economics, most countries strive to buy products related to these technologies. For example, Russia is not skilled in making high-quality optics. Therefore, they installed some French optical sighting systems on their tanks. Even now, Russia tries to buy chips and other components for missile production, which it cannot produce on its own,” he shared with The Media Line.

Grekov emphasized that Russia has never achieved technological autonomy. With sanctions and various restrictions, Putin has permitted the theft of technology in the hope that this will reduce dependency on Western supplies.

“Aside from stealing the technology, one must also be able to produce something based on it. Russia also lacks modern equipment for high-precision processing. Therefore, I am not sure that this technology theft will be very effective, but it doesn't hurt to try,” he added.

According to Grekov, legalizing "intellectual property results” is a double-edged move as it equally allows something to be stolen from Russia. He noted, “If you withdraw from such systems and relationships, you thereby step out of this legal framework. This is the general logic.”

“Russia is going to steal technologies from Western countries – the USA and some European countries. Israel cannot be excluded from this list. I think they will pull technologies from wherever they can,” said Grekov.

"For Russia, it is now crucial to achieve technological advancements in various fields: aviation, electronic warfare systems, various electronics, as well as missiles and ammunition. Essentially, everything where Western models have some advantage, which is more or less almost everywhere. I think the current priorities are fifth-generation fighters or stealth bombers, such as the F-35 and F-22," explains Sharp.

He emphasized that industrial espionage is widespread, even among allied nations.

"Even friendly, partner countries engage in espionage within certain limits. For instance, Europeans sometimes conduct military-industrial espionage in the United States and vice versa. The Americans also harbor suspicions regarding Israel, and the same is true for Israel towards the United States,” Sharp explained.

"With or without a decree, almost every country should be prepared for attempts to uncover its important secrets, including those related to the defense industry, even from non-hostile nations," Sharp asserted.