Western sanctions were supposed to strangle Russia’s economy after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A year later, though, it hasn’t ground to a halt. One big reason: The ability of the U.S. and its allies to dictate global trade flows in high-technology items like microchips has, so far, proven much less effective than many had assumed. While Russia-bound exports of semiconductors, machinery and other equipment from places like the U.S., the European Union and Japan have dropped sharply, firms in numerous sanctions-skeptical Asian and Middle Eastern jurisdictions—especially China, Turkey and Hong Kong—have stepped into the breach, selling their own equipment or reshipping foreign goods to Russia. Both Russian customs data provided to The Wall Street Journal by national-security nonprofit C4ADS and official data from China, Turkey and elsewhere demonstrate how quickly trade flows have reorganized after an initial dip in early 2022.

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