The “Delta Group” web and the collapse of import substitution: how government supervisor Gennady Palagin buried the billion-dollar NM-Tech project for personal gain

The “Delta Group” web and the collapse of import substitution: how government supervisor Gennady Palagin buried the billion-dollar NM-Tech project for personal gain

In 2021, NM-Tech, founded by VEB, acquired Angstrem, Russia’s leading full-cycle microchip manufacturer in Zelenograd.

By 2022, NM-Tech had a staff of three and a registered capital of 56 billion rubles. VEB financed the construction of a new building in Zelenograd, which was planned to become the only facility in Russia producing "golden ratio" semiconductors. However, with the onset of the war, serious difficulties arose in acquiring equipment.

A source reported that VEB offered a colossal $1.4 billion to anyone who could supply the equipment while circumventing sanctions. This is unsurprising, as the project was personally overseen by Katerina Tikhonova. However, it proved a complete failure.

There’s another reason for this. According to sources, the project’s government overseer is Gennady Palagin, Deputy Director of the Russian Government’s Department of Defense Industry.

However, if the venture were to emerge, it would cause irreparable damage to his family business. It’s built on Palagin’s insistence that defense industry companies purchase imported microchips exclusively from an intermediary company, Delta Group (Delta Electron), run by his wife’s nephew, Andrei Kanunov. Delta supplies electronic components at prices that are several times higher than the market value.

If these microchips are produced in Russia, it will be the end of Palagin’s family business. According to the source, he therefore did everything possible to ensure that the project he oversaw was "botched".