Translated material
"Neither hot nor cold"
The US has reintroduced sanctions against Russian arms exporters
The US administration, a few days after the new Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was sworn in , dealt an economic blow to 24 “targets”. The State Department, which regulates the use of economic “weapons,” decided to impose sanctions against 24 legal entities and individuals from ten countries (China, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, Malaysia, Syria, Pakistan, North Korea, Sudan and Russia). Among the private individuals appears a certain Russian citizen Alexi Safonov, whose place of work and type of activity is not reported.Economic sanctions will affect three Russian companies . This time, the objects of sanctions were the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosoboronexport , the Tula Instrument Engineering Design Bureau and the Kolomenskoye Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau. All of them are accused of violating US law prohibiting the sale of arms to Iran and Syria, which the US administration classifies as the so-called “axis of evil” - countries that encourage international terrorism.
The sanctions were imposed on December 28 last year, and they were officially announced on January 5 this year. The order imposing punitive measures was signed by a minor official - Acting US Under Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Andrew Semmel.
The measures are valid for two years. During this time, any structures and divisions of the US federal government are prohibited from cooperating with blacklisted Russian firms - carrying out any specific operations for supplies and services, providing any assistance through the US government, issuing any export licenses for trade operations . Let us recall that, in accordance with the American non-proliferation law, sanctions for anyone for supplying weapons to Iran were introduced on January 1, 1999, and to Syria on January 1, 2005.
Russia has entered into a contract with Iran for the supply of 29 Tor-M1 mobile anti-aircraft missile systems (ZRS) worth $1.4 billion. The contract is half completed. "Tor-M1" is produced at the Izhevsk electromechanical plant "Kupol", part of the Almaz-Antey air defense concern. The Tula Instrument Design Bureau, as stated by its representative, never sold weapons to those countries against which prohibitory measures were taken by the international community. The Tula residents who supply high-precision weapons abroad simply do not have business contacts with the United States, so the sanctions for them are symbolic. The contract with Syria for the supply of Strelets short-range anti-aircraft missile systems produced by the Kolomna Mechanical Engineering Bureau was completed in February last year.
Perhaps the current US actions are dictated by the same reasons as similar sanctions imposed on July 28, 2006 against the same Rosoboronexport and the Sukhoi aircraft holding company . Then the Americans rather vaguely accused Russian firms of supplying Iran with equipment and materials “capable of facilitating the production of weapons of mass destruction and cruise or ballistic missile systems.” On November 21, after the meeting of the presidents of Russia and the United States at the APEC summit in Hanoi, sanctions against Sukhoi were lifted; with regard to Rosoboronexport, there was no talk of lifting sanctions.
The reaction of Russian officials to the announcement of new measures, as one might expect, turned out to be extremely negative. Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, as the head of the export control commission, stated that the named Russian companies did not violate any international norms, rules and obligations assumed by Russia on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technologies. In general, according to Mr. Ivanov, the United States is “trying to extend its legislation to the norms of international law.” And this is being done because the United States is dissatisfied with the growing sales of Russian weapons and military equipment. According to Russian military diplomats, the United States is especially alarmed by the increasing advance of Russian weapons into the Asian and Latin American markets . The Minister of Defense recalled that this is the second time the Americans have imposed sanctions on the state mediator, and the fourth time on the Tula Instrument Design Bureau. But these enterprises, according to Sergei Ivanov, “are neither hot nor cold. They have worked and will continue to work.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry also assessed the sanctions as an attempt to extend domestic American legislation to foreign companies. “As a result of its politicized actions, the American state is denying itself and American companies cooperation with our advanced enterprises,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. -- In business language this is called “lost opportunities.” Representative of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosoboronexport Valery Kartavtsev admits that the actions of the American administration may be a manifestation of unfair competition.