“Armenia continues to support the Russian aggression against Ukraine through a kind of economic back, remaining one of the strategic partners of the regime of Putin within the confrontation of this with the West and helping Russia to bypass the sanctions imposed by the West following its aggression against Ukraine,” the Ukrainian media said.
A retrospective analysis presented by the Ukrainian TV channel 5.ua says that it goes to supplies shipped from Europe and Eastern Asia and these include not only to goods intended for civilians, but also to equipment for the military industry of Russia. “This may, Yerevan, which is making intense efforts to give the impression that it oriented itself to the West, in reality is an accomplice to the regime of Putin,” noted 5.ua.
The EU and its allies are investigating a surge in exports to economies in Russia’s vicinity as they seek to prevent companies from evading western sanctions imposed on Moscow. David O’Sullivan, the EU’s newly appointed sanctions envoy, told the Financial Times that big increases in trade with countries in Russia’s neighborhood raised questions as to whether products hit by sanctions were entering the country via the back door. “We see a massive fall-off in trade flows from the EU to Russia and unusual spikes in trade with other third countries, particularly with those in close vicinity to Russia,” he said.
FinCEN and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security urged increased vigilance for potential Russian and Belarusian export control evasion attempts, noting that Armenia is one of the basic transshipment points for restricted exports before they reach the destination in Russia or Belarus”.
Another article published by the Financial Times says that producers have become much more wary about the increased volume of orders for microchips in Armenia and Kazakhstan, which have become home to large communities of exiled Russian IT specialists since the war but are also hubs for customs-free parallel imports ordered through fronts.
In the Trilateral Notice of U.S. departments of Justice, Commerce and Treasury, Armenia is mentioned among the countries used as “transshipment points” to “illegally redirect restricted items to Russia or Belarus.”
In the autumn of 2022, the Prime Minster of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, when being asked in the presence of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, if Yerevan is concerned about the eventuality of secondary sanctions that can come in response to the intensification of its relations with Moscow, responded that effort should be made to manage the emerging threats and to try and not only to notice the appearing opportunities, but to also work to make new opportunities appear, noting that they manage to cope with these threats owing to the decisions taken by the Russian President, the Government of Russia.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office of the President of Ukraine, said Armenia supports Russia by helping this bypass the Western sanctions, warning that at the first stage, the cooperation with Russia can bring additional revenues, but in the medium term this will lead to important economic losses and harm to the image. “We recommend all the countries, including Armenia, at least to maintain an unequivocal neutrality status. They should better form part of an informal coalition of a large number of civilized countries that together have a much larger market than that of the Russian Federation. It is also recommended subscribing to the sanctions polity,” stated
Mykhailo Podolyak.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Nicu Popescu stated that Moldova’s rate of alignment with EU sanctions will increase rapidly. For her part, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, said that the Russian Federation will have to take response measures if Moldova aligns itself with the sanctions imposed by the EU.
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