The US has imposed sanctions on Armenian and Kyrgyzstan companies for helping Russia

The U.S. Department of Commerce has imposed sanctions on two companies from Armenia and Kyrgyzstan for helping Russia circumvent Western sanctions.

Limited Kyrgyz company Tro.Ya, LLC is a supplier of electronic and navigational equipment for industry, as well as components for telecommunications, according to the website. The Armenian company Medisar, LLC is engaged in the supply of chemical raw materials and reagents. Medisar officially represents manufacturers of foreign equipment from the USA, Switzerland, Japan, Germany and other countries in the republic.

This is not the first time that CIS companies have been subject to US sanctions. In April, the US Department of Commerce blacklisted companies from Armenia and Uzbekistan.

Washington has previously warned CIS countries that Russia’s help in circumventing the restrictions could lead to secondary sanctions. In April, Deputy Undersecretary of the Treasury Elizabeth Rosenberg came to Astana for talks and threatened Kazakh banks and companies with sanctions. Trading illegal goods with Russia carries risks and the United States intends to clearly warn Kazakh officials against this, she explained.

The Armenian prime minister told the Czech newspaper Respekt that the republic is trying to comply with the sanctions against Russia as much as possible. He confirmed that some of the goods that went directly to the Russian Federation before the war now arrive there via Armenia.

“But when it comes to sanctioned goods, we try to be as transparent as possible, we work with the EU, the US, even with Russia itself. <...> We are happy to meet the Russian demand wherever there is free space. Sanctions are our red lines,” Pashinyan said (quoted from Armenpress).

Last year, Russia managed to partially comply with the commodity sanctions imposed on it. The Kremlin circumvented the restrictions by re-exporting from neighboring countries. In the EU countries, there was an anomalous increase in trade with the CIS countries, which could then send goods to Russia. Thus, after the start of the war in Ukraine from March to November 2022, EU exports to the CIS increased by 48% year-on-year to €20.3 billion. Over the same period, deliveries of goods from the European Union to Russia fell by 47% to €36.3 billion.