Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Yerevan fears Western sanctions due to cooperation with Moscow. In particular, many goods that used to be delivered directly to the Russian Federation are now transiting through Armenia, he specified. “Ghost Trade”. FT told about $1 billion worth of EU goods missing in Russia European dual-use goods worth more than $1 billion disappeared during transit… 11 May 15:41

“With regard to goods that are under sanctions, we try to be as transparent as possible, we cooperate with the EU, the USA, even with Russia itself. We are happy to meet Russian demand wherever there is free space,” the politician said.

“Sanctions are our red lines. And we clearly say this to the Russians: we do not want to offend you, but we ourselves cannot afford to fall under sanctions. There is no secret here,” Armenpress quoted Pashinyan as saying.

In early March, the Armenian prime minister already made a statement about the sanctions regime of Western countries, noting that Armenia would not help circumvent the restrictions.

The head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Denis Manturov, said on May 15 that the parallel import mechanism will continue to operate in 2024 for those goods that the Russian market will need. “To some extent, yes. For those groups of goods and for the nomenclature in which the need to saturate the market will remain,” he said.

Threats from the United States

In the summer of 2022, Washington announced that Armenia and 17 other countries, including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, are helping Russia bypass sanctions restrictions.The Spectator: The West failed by declaring a sanctions war on Russia The West failed and failed to achieve its goals by declaring a sanctions war against the Russian Federation after… 12 May 12:00

In February 2023, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development released a report stating that after the start of the Russian special operation, exports from the EU and the UK to Russia more than halved, while exports from Europe to Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan jumped suspiciously by 15–90%.

“A significant part of the additional exports to Central Asia and the Caucasus may have been diverted to buyers in Russia,” the authors of the document noted.

In April, the US Treasury announced that it was tightening its scrutiny of countries suspected of facilitating parallel imports.

Through Kazakhstan

Earlier, the National Bank of Kazakhstan said about attempts to avoid situations in which Russia would use the country as a tool to circumvent EU and US sanctions. Akylzhan Baimagambetov, deputy chairman of the organization, noted that the country’s government is trying to prevent, for example, the export of dual-use goods through the territory of Kazakhstan to the territory of the Russian Federation.”Kommersant”: refrigerators in Russia may rise in price by 10-12% due to Kazakhstan’s position on sanctions The intention of the Kazakh authorities to tighten control of parallel imports in Russia may lead to…

“We are trying to maintain a neutral position towards Russia. Nevertheless, Russia is our largest trading partner. Therefore, we are trying to use a balanced approach here, because the sanctions against Russia also create problems for us. To some extent, they have a negative impact on economic activity in certain areas,” he said.

Baimagambetov emphasized that secondary sanctions against any country would create very difficult problems for that country and for the entire region.