Myanmar junta awards major trade software contract to sanctioned Russian tech group

Myanmar’s military junta has awarded a contract to a subsidiary of a sanctioned Russian technology group to develop a digital platform intended to process the country’s import and export documentation, according to activist group Justice For Myanmar (JFM). The contract for the National Single Window Web Portal Project was signed in Naypyitaw on August 12 by the junta-controlled Myanmar Customs Department and the Myanmar branch of Astra Consulting LLC, part of Russia’s Astra Group. A photograph of the signing ceremony posted on the Facebook account of Astra Group executive Nikolay Pryanishnikov identifies Myanmar-based Fortitech and Garuda Solution as partners in the project. The agreement was signed last week, but the junta has yet to publicly announce the deal. Astra Consulting registered a branch in Myanmar in June, two months before the agreement was signed, according to Myanmar and Russian corporate records cited by JFM. The deal comes as Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing travelled to Russia on Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials. The regime said the visit was intended to deepen strategic cooperation between the two countries, particularly in security and the economy. In an August 13 Facebook post, Pryanishnikov described the agreement as a “state contract” resulting from cooperation between the Russian and Myanmar sides through the two countries’ intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation. Pryanishnikov said the first stage of the project would link the information systems of government agencies involved in foreign trade. The platform is also expected to integrate with the ASEAN Single Window and could eventually serve as the basis for other government digital services in Myanmar, he said. He described the project as an important step in Astra Group’s international expansion, saying the company had progressed from initial business missions to the launch of a project on a national scale. The National Single Window is intended to create a single electronic platform linking government agencies involved in Myanmar’s import and export procedures. The junta has said it plans to implement the system by 2028. At a coordination meeting in January, junta finance and revenue minister Kan Zaw said the system was intended to speed up import and export clearance using “advanced technology” and facilitate trade within ASEAN and globally, according to the junta-run Global New Light of Myanmar. The regime established a National Single Window Implementation Steering Committee in August last year and has said the project will require coordination between trade-related government departments and the private sector on funding, banking, and payment systems, as well as legal and technical matters. The involvement of Astra has raised concerns because of the Russian group’s links to Moscow’s military and security establishment and the potentially sensitive information that could pass through the system. Astra Group is best known for Astra Linux, an operating system used by Russian state institutions. The company lists Russia’s Ministry of Defence and Federal Security Service (FSB) among its major clients, alongside state-owned and defence-related companies, according to JFM. The United States sanctioned Astra Group in May 2024 over its role in a sector of the Russian economy supporting the country’s military-industrial base. Canada has also imposed sanctions on the group. Astra Consulting itself has not been directly sanctioned. Publicly available Russian corporate records do not provide sufficient information about the subsidiary’s ownership to determine whether sanctions imposed on its parent company also apply to it, according to JFM. Russian corporate records cited by the activist group also show that Astra Consulting holds licences issued by Russian security agencies. Russia’s Federal Service for Technical and Export Control, an agency under the defence ministry, has granted the company licences covering the development and production of technology used to protect confidential information, while the FSB has licensed it to work on cryptographic and protected telecommunications systems. The nature of the National Single Window means the platform could process sensitive information. Myanmar traders are required to submit documents including copies of identity cards and passports, as well as bank statements, as part of some licensing procedures. Neither Astra Group nor the junta has publicly disclosed the value of the contract. JFM has urged member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to examine the potential implications of Astra Group’s involvement, including what access the company could have to regional customs and trade information once the Myanmar platform is connected to the ASEAN Single Window. “This should alarm ASEAN and every government that has sanctioned Russia’s military-industrial base,” said JFM spokesperson Yadanar Maung. “Min Aung Hlaing and Putin, both sanctioned war criminals, are partners in crime. They commit mass atrocities while enriching themselves from the theft of public assets on a grand scale.” Plans for a Myanmar National Single Window predate the 2021 military coup. A blueprint for the project was developed in 2020 under the elected civilian government, according to JFM. It remains unclear how closely the system now being developed follows the earlier plan. The contract comes amid increasingly close military cooperation between the junta and Russia, which has become one of the Myanmar military’s most important international partners since the 2021 coup, supplying weapons and military equipment while maintaining close ties with its senior leadership. In July, around two dozen Russian military personnel took part in a nearly two-week joint exercise with junta forces in Naypyitaw that included demonstrations of Russian-made firearms, drones, and other military equipment. The exercise, known as Tiger-2026, was the first joint “training and methodological gathering” of Russian and Myanmar special forces, according to Russia’s defence ministry. Myanmar Now contacted officials from the junta-controlled revenue and digital development authorities for comment on the project, but they did not immediately respond.

Myanmar junta awards major trade software contract to sanctioned Russian tech group

The deal gives a Russian technology company with links to the country’s security agencies a role in developing a system intended to process Myanmar’s import and export documentation

Subscribe for full access

Explainer: Who are the companies and cronies backing Myanmar junta leader’s Thailand visit?

From palace stages to exile: A Myanmar dancer who chose conscience over ceremony

Her parents gone, a Myanmar student prays for the return of a father lost in conflict

Rakhine State floods put AA administration to its biggest test yet

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

Junta chief makes trip to Russia

Myanmar junta airstrike kills eight family members in southern Rakhine State

Regime arrests 19 CSO members on suspicion of supporting education in resistance areas

Fighting erupts between junta and KIA troops near Mongmit in northern Shan