(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 1. Armenia is helping
Russian to bypass sanctions imposed by the West via unauthorised
sales, Trend reports citing the article published by The
Economist.
The article reads that yet Russia continues to import almost as
much as it did before the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
“New trading partners have sprung up to replace the West. China
now sells twice as much to Russia as it did in 2019.“Parallel”
imports-unauthorised sales from the West to Russia via a third
country of everything from fizzy drinks to computer chips-have
soared. In 2022 imports from the EU to Armenia mysteriously
doubled, even as Armenian exports to Russia tripled,” says the
author.
Reportedly, Serbia's exports of phones to Russia rose from
$8,518 in 2021 to $37m in 2022. Shipments of washing machines from
Kazakhstan to Russia rose from zero in 2021 to nearly 100,000 units
last year.
Earlier, the US Departments of Commerce, the Treasury, and of
Justice have issued a trilateral note on the specifications of the
signs of attempts to circumvent sanctions against Russia.
According to the document, one of the most common tactics is the
use of third-party intermediaries or transshipment points to avoid
restrictions. It was revealed that Armenia is used to illegally
redirect goods to Russia or Belarus, thus, bypassing West
sanctions.
Peter Stano, EU Spokesperson, told Trend that EU is looking at
the issue of sanctioned goods' flow from Armenia to Russia.
“The EU imposed set of wide-ranging sanctions against Russia for
its illegal aggression of Ukraine, violation of the UN Charter and
for committing atrocities amounting to war crimes. The EU has
called on all countries to align with these sanctions, adopt
similar national measures or at least not to allow any
circumvention of these sanctions. In a previous sanctions package
the EU introduced a possibility to impose sanctions also on persons
or entities allowing the circumvention of sanctions.
We are closely monitoring trade flows of sanctioned goods from
the EU to third countries and from third countries to Russia. In
the context of Armenia, we have indeed observed some anomalous
trade flows. We are looking at the issue and we are in dialogue
with the Armenian authorities,” he said.
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