Putin Dealt a Blow by Major Chinese Spy Cam Maker

Chinese surveillance industry giant Hikvision has suspended operations in Russia, joining the ranks of over 1,000 companies that have scaled back business in the country since Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Hikvision's Russian website is currently offline, a development flagged by Russian security systems adviser Videoglaz on the social media platform Telegram last week. The precise date operations ceased is unclear.

The Hangzhou-based manufacturer is subject to U.S. Treasury sanctions and is on the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List, subjecting it to export controls and licensing restrictions over the company's involvement in human rights violations against China's Muslim minorities.

The move by Hikvision, which Ukraine last year labeled a "sponsor of war" over its continued sales in Russia, comes on the heels of U.S. secondary sanctions targeting international companies in sectors deemed to support Russia's military industrial base.

Hikvision, along with its budget brand HiWatch, comprised some 30 percent of Russia's surveillance camera market in 2021, according to Russian media agency RSpectr.

"The suspension or change of supply channels may in the near future cause a shortage of Hikvision products and a number of electronic components, which will lead to an increase in their price," Videoglaz wrote in its post, adding the future of the Chinese company's technical support and cloud services in Russia were also in doubt.

Videoglaz said the time had come to shift to domestic manufacturers from global brands to ensure more reliable industry supply chains.

Newsweek reached out to Hikvision and the Russian and Chinese foreign ministries with written requests for comment.

Hikvision cameras are also commonplace in Ukraine. One was implicated in a deadly Russian missile attack in Kyiv in January, Radio Free Europe cited a Ukrainian law enforcement source as saying. Ukraine's state security agency believes Russian forces hacked the camera.

Last year, a Ukrainian company with connections to Hikvision was excluded by local authorities from the tender process for a public surveillance technology contract over its association with Hikvision.

The excluded company, Engineering-Analytica, filed a complaint with Ukraine's Anti-Monopoly Committee citing "discriminatory requirements." The complaint was dismissed, the committee told Newsweek.

Hikvision has also been implicated in human rights abuses within China.

In 2023, the U.S.-based surveillance industry research group Internet Protocol Video Market revealed that Hikvision secured a $9 million contract to develop a "smart campus" system for Mingjiang University in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province.

Among the requirements listed in the tender, which was reviewed by Newsweek, was invasive tracking of students' associations and activities, including dining habits, that could assist authorities in keeping tabs on minorities, particularly Chinese Uyghurs and other majority-Muslim groups.

Hikvision denied these features were included in the final product.

China is estimated to have interned as many as 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in camps, which Beijing calls "re-education facilities" in the far-west region of Xinjiang. Former detainees who later managed to escape the country have come forward with accounts of torture, forced sterilization, forced assimilation and rape.

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