The Republic of Armenia is in danger of getting targeted by the anti-Russian sanctions of the United States. Yesterday, it became known that the US informed the Armenian government about the danger of possible penalties for signing “significant deals” with Russian military-industrial complex companies.
“There has been a notice to governments and private companies in other countries about possible sanctions in case of significant transactions with Russian companies included in the list. We are not discussing our sanctions in advance. We declare the sanctions, when and if there are such”, the Press Service of the Embassy reported in response to one of the Armenian newspapers’ question whether it is possible that Armenia becomes a target of those sanctions and whether discussions are underway with the authorities of Armenia.
Let us remind that at the end of January the USA announced new sanctions against Russia, which are the first global financial and military sanctions against Russia and can have serious implications on the Russian economy. The anti-Russian sanctions have a military component over the last few months, as they are targeted against a number of defense companies. Besides, the United States imposed new sanctions against a number of Russian military-industrial companies in December. Russian and American political scientists at that time did not exclude that the range of sanctions against military-industrial companies would be expanded.
At that time, Steven Blanck, the US Foreign Policy Council analyst, said that new US sanctions against Russian military and industrial companies could keep other countries away from Russian arms purchases: “It would not be bad if the Russian arms stopped reaching the South Caucasus, maybe it would help the sides to achieve peace”. According to Blanck, although some state-level buyers will have certain exceptions, buyers of large quantities of Russian weapons, including Armenia and Azerbaijan, may face surprises. “Generally, it is possible to impose sanctions on an entire government”.
In an interview with “168 hours”, Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said, that at the very beginning of the discussions on this topic, he thought that the United States could not ban Armenia from buying weapons from Russia. However, according to him, if there is a possibility of separate sanctions against Armenia and therefore Azerbaijan, we have to deal with a much wider process than just “punishing” Russia for some problems.
“If you claim that the Armenian side has been informed about the possibility of such sanctions, it means that they have also informed Azerbaijan, and the United States has envisaged another package of sanctions against these countries because it is not possible to prohibit the purchase of weapons, but the United States, with its rich levers, can set light sanctions for these countries, limiting the access of Russian weapons in the region. In fact, over time the sides will refrain from purchasing weapons from Russia, as the United States can create serious financial difficulties in these countries very easily.
Araks MARTIROSYAN
