KSE Institute has published the first edition of its Russian CHP Imports Tracker, a new quarterly analytical product that assesses Russia’s ability to import critically important goods falling under the sanctions coalition’s export controls regime.

The Common High Priority (CHP) items list includes 50 types of products ranging from microelectronics used in missiles to high-precision machine tools essential to the military-industrial complex. Export controls imposed in 2022 have seriously curtailed these flows — with Russia’s total imports falling by more than half in value terms. But Russia still manages to acquire and use these goods in its war machine — almost entirely through China, which now accounts for approximately 75% of reported CHP exports to Russia.

The tracker draws on trading partners’ reported export statistics via UN Comtrade, supplemented by data from Chinese customs, covering countries that account for approximately 97–98% of total Russian imports.

The Q1 2026 edition devotes particular attention to how Russia’s supply chains have shifted from predominantly European to overwhelmingly Chinese. It also places the pre-2022 importance of Russia as a customer in the context of the sanctions coalition’s worldwide CHP exports, finding that Russia played only a minor role at the aggregate level. Moreover, it casts doubt on claims that export flows have merely been redirected from Russia to Central Asia — and documents how the threat of US secondary sanctions has proven a powerful tool in curbing third-country circumvention, as the case of India in 2024 illustrates.

Future editions of the Russian CHP Imports Tracker will build upon this analysis with newly released trade statistics, investigate how Russia circumvents export controls, and make recommendations to policymakers seeking to reduce the Russian military-industrial complex’s access to Western technology. Importantly, subsequent editions will take a closer look at trade volumes and the prices that Russia has had to pay to maintain access to critical imports.