Sanctioned seizures

The State Department has always been sensitive to the rapprochement between Moscow and Tehran

Cooperation between post-Soviet Russia and Iran since the mid-1990s has encountered resistance from Washington. In the United States, since 1992, a law was in force that provided for the possibility of sanctions against organizations and countries that supplied weapons to Tehran and Baghdad. Later, in 1996, Iran was subject to an American export ban and as a “country supporting terrorism.” But in the first half of the 90s, the Russian Federation supplied Iran with military aircraft, diesel submarines, tanks, S-200 anti-aircraft missile systems, etc. The amount of arms contracts between Moscow and Tehran exceeded $4 billion.

However, the United States managed to convince Russia to abandon continued military cooperation with Iran. To do this, Washington had to reach a secret agreement with Moscow. In 1995, US Vice President Al Gore and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin signed a compromise document that allowed Russia to complete arms supplies to Tehran under already concluded contracts. Russia no longer concluded new agreements with Iran, and the United States did not impose sanctions provided for by its legislation.

The contents of the secret agreement became public at the end of 1998, and already in January of the following year the Americans introduced the first sanctions against Russian organizations. In particular, restrictions on cooperation affected the Russian Institute of Chemical Technology named after. Mendeleev and the Research Design Institute of Power Engineering (NIKIET). Three more Russian companies fell under sanctions in April of the same year.

Another surge of American sanctions against Russians occurred in 2003-2004. First, in September 2003, Washington accused the Tula Instrument Design Bureau of selling Kornet missiles and anti-tank systems to Iran; the ban on American cooperation with Tula was in effect for a year. And in April 2004, the Omsk Engine Plant named after Omsk fell under overseas sanctions caused by the “Iranian issue” for two years. Baranova. By the way, in March of the same year, restrictions on cooperation with Russian Chemical Technology University, NIKIET and other domestic companies, sanctions against which were introduced after the disclosure of agreements in 1999, ended.