2020 State Department Letter to Congress in re: SDN-Related Ventilator Purchase

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TURBOFAC Commentary (789 words)

Notes:

1) The correspondence in the native PDF file relates to a well-reported, politically consequential transaction involving the purchase/receipt of ventilators from Russia in April of 2020. See the outgoing Congressional correspondence at p. 1 of the native PDF file, and the news articles linked therein.

It was reported, and not denied by the State Department, that the U.S. government had received ~650,000 worth of Russian-made ventilators that were manufactured primarily by “Ural Instrument Engineering Plant” (UPZ), which is, in the State Department’s words, “part of the conglomerate known as Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET), which is a Specially Designated National (SDN).” The members of Congress writing at p. 1 of the native PDF presumed that the transaction would have been prohibited in principle due to the 50% rule, i.e. UPZ being blocked by operation of law due to its relationship with the

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2020 State Department Letter to Congress in re: SDN-Related Ventilator Purchase

TURBOFAC Commentary (789 words)