The Ministry of Industry and Trade fined the Kurchatov Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences 303.1 million rubles for missing the deadlines for mastering production of a microprocessor that was supposed to replace Intel products. The contract was signed back in November 2016 for 900.9 million rubles and provided for completion of the work by the end of 2020. However, the fourth stage — mastering mass production — was delivered by the institute only in September 2023. The delay amounted to 1,381 days, CNews reports.
Earlier, in January 2022, the ministry had already fined the institute 94.8 million rubles. Thus, the total amount of fines reached almost 398 million rubles.
The chip under development is intended for compact high-performance onboard computing systems and is meant to become an equivalent of the Intel Atom E680T (45 nm process technology). The processor is to include at least two domestic cores with a MIPS64-like architecture, a graphics core, PCI Express 2.0 controllers, and other components. The core clock frequency must be at least 1.2 GHz. According to CNews, this is a processor for the defense industry, and the work is being carried out within the framework of the state program "Development of the Defense-Industrial Complex".
This is not an isolated case. In March 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Trade sent out notices en masse on the recovery of penalties to microelectronics manufacturers. OKB Planeta was fined for a four-year delay in creating a Russian laser for transmitting microwave signals to replace a German one. The Specialized Design and Technology Bureau of Electronic Systems was fined 274 million rubles for a delay of more than six years in creating a microchip for the defense sector. Battery manufacturer NIAI "Istochnik" was fined 181 million rubles for missing deadlines for the work. Manufacturers fear that the mass collection of fines will lead to the bankruptcy of enterprises fulfilling the state defense order.
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