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People do get caught for smuggling export-controlled goods. Some Russians were caught a few years ago for trying to export a few night-vision goggles (around 20

People do get caught for smuggling export-controlled goods. Some Russians were caught a few years ago for trying to export a few night-vision goggles (around 20 or so?). You could probably smuggle out a couple dozen from the consumer market, but hard to do so in higher quantities (enough to outfit a military) without attracting attention. Russia has had issues with not having enough optics, so there's speculation that the Russian NODs for sale to American LARPers for years as milsurp might not have actually been surplus...

LarryMullins 4y ago
> (around 20 or so?) So, literally nothing. That's small guys getting slapped for breaking rules. Wake me when France imprisons some Thales executives for selling thermal scopes to Russia (post-invasion!) By the way, the French government is the largest Thales shareholder.
- mannerheim 4y ago
  Not like American export restrictions apply in France.
  - sn_master 4y ago
    US sanctions apply to any entity doing business with the US. If a company chooses to violate them, they lose the US market and can get penalized in other ways too by getting their US assets seized.
    - mannerheim 4y ago
      Well, first, sanctions aren't the same as export restrictions. America can account for NODs sold in America, they can ask vendors who they've sold them to, they get signed statements from anyone who buys one that they can't be exported, but that's not something America can do in France.
sn_master 4y ago
How many do you think were caught vs how many were successful? The masterminds back in Moscow don't care if one shipment gets caught when 10 more made it through.
- mannerheim 4y ago
  The masterminds in Moscow would like to outfit thousands of men with NODs, but can hardly do it if even an operation to smuggle few dozen gets busted. These aren't cheap devices. Somebody with a Russian name dropping $100k on a some 20 NODs is going to raise eyebrows.
  - sn_master 4y ago
    > if even an operation to smuggle few dozen gets busted. Right, one such operation failed, but there's many more which succeeded, not to mention all the Western stuff they confiscated from the Ukrainians (verified through videos they posted). And you're right, it's not realistic for them to outfit thousands of soldiers with that gear, but certainly enough for small groups of special forces, but their real problem isn't bypassing sanctions, but their own corruption which made them not have such gear long before the war started in the first place.
    - mannerheim 4y ago
      I would be very surprised if any of the Western optics the Russians have that have been captured are American. Or at least the advanced optics available for sale in America but under export controls. Like I said, this isn't hard stuff to keep track of.

LarryMullins 4y ago

> (around 20 or so?) So, literally nothing. That's small guys getting slapped for breaking rules. Wake me when France imprisons some Thales executives for selling thermal scopes to Russia (post-invasion!) By the way, the French government is the largest Thales shareholder.

mannerheim 4y ago
Not like American export restrictions apply in France.
- sn_master 4y ago
  US sanctions apply to any entity doing business with the US. If a company chooses to violate them, they lose the US market and can get penalized in other ways too by getting their US assets seized.
  - mannerheim 4y ago
    Well, first, sanctions aren't the same as export restrictions. America can account for NODs sold in America, they can ask vendors who they've sold them to, they get signed statements from anyone who buys one that they can't be exported, but that's not something America can do in France.

sn_master 4y ago

How many do you think were caught vs how many were successful? The masterminds back in Moscow don't care if one shipment gets caught when 10 more made it through.

mannerheim 4y ago
The masterminds in Moscow would like to outfit thousands of men with NODs, but can hardly do it if even an operation to smuggle few dozen gets busted. These aren't cheap devices. Somebody with a Russian name dropping $100k on a some 20 NODs is going to raise eyebrows.
- sn_master 4y ago
  > if even an operation to smuggle few dozen gets busted. Right, one such operation failed, but there's many more which succeeded, not to mention all the Western stuff they confiscated from the Ukrainians (verified through videos they posted). And you're right, it's not realistic for them to outfit thousands of soldiers with that gear, but certainly enough for small groups of special forces, but their real problem isn't bypassing sanctions, but their own corruption which made them not have such gear long before the war started in the first place.
  - mannerheim 4y ago
    I would be very surprised if any of the Western optics the Russians have that have been captured are American. Or at least the advanced optics available for sale in America but under export controls. Like I said, this isn't hard stuff to keep track of.