Developer of Russia's Irtysh chip wins right to sell Chinese Loongson servers in Russia

The company that develops the Russian Irtysh processor has filed declarations of conformity for Chinese servers built on Loongson processors, giving it the right to sell them across the Eurasian Economic Union. The decision follows earlier objections from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which saw the chips as a threat to national security.

What exactly the developer received

• The company filed declarations for servers based on Chinese Loongson processors
• The declarations allow it to sell these servers in EAEU member states, including Russia
• The Ministry of Industry and Trade had previously described Loongson chips publicly as a potential threat to national security
• The approval was obtained by the developer of the domestic Irtysh processor itself

How the

Ministry of Industry and Trade explained its concerns about Loongson

Loongson is a processor line that a Chinese state-owned company has been developing since the 2000s on its own LoongArch architecture (previously on a modified MIPS architecture). China built the chips largely as a hedge against losing access to Western processor technology, and actively promotes them as the foundation for critical infrastructure at home. Russian regulators, including the Ministry of Industry and Trade, have at various times pointed to the risks of making domestic IT infrastructure dependent on foreign hardware platforms, Chinese ones included — especially when the equipment is intended for security-sensitive segments.

How this ties into Russia's chip import substitution

Russia's own processors, such as Elbrus and Baikal, ship in limited batches and still rely heavily on foreign contract manufacturers — above all Taiwan's TSMC, which sanctions have made harder for Russian customers to access. With server hardware in short supply, Chinese platforms like Loongson have become a practical alternative for Russian integrators. They also raise questions about a new kind of technological dependence — this time on Chinese suppliers rather than Western ones.

What this means

The approval to sell Loongson servers shows how Russia resolves, in practice, a conflict between two priorities of its IT policy: the urgent need for affordable server hardware after Western vendors pulled out, and regulators' wariness about critical infrastructure growing more dependent on Chinese suppliers.