Saturday, July 22 2023 16:46

ArmInfo.In the issue of sanctions we are closely in touch and cooperate with the EU special  envoy and the representative of the US, to make sure that we act as a responsible member of the international community. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated  in an interview with Agence France-Presse in response to a question about what the Armenian government is doing to ensure that the territory of Armenia is not used by Russia to circumvent sanctions.

As he noted, It may seem stange to you, but we are transparent on  this point as well. "We are a member of the Eurasian Economic Union,  Russia is our main trading partner, and naturally, from the very  first days we understood that the sanctions that are being imposed by  the West and other countries upon Russia would create certain  problems. We also understood that Russia will have expectations from  us to help to the best of our ability in this difficult economic  environment, because, imagine the volume of Armenia and the volume of  Russia," he said.

According to the PM Yerevan also understood that the West will be  expecting that we help them, in complying with the sanctions. "When  talking with our Russian partners we said the following - we  understand your expectation and we stand ready to address, to meet  your expectation, but up to the point at which Armenia would face the  threat of sanctions, because if an endless country like Russia can  perhaps afford to face the sanctions, but Armenia, especially in this  military-political environment, cannot afford anything like that. And  this is also the same text that we communicated to the West, as  proven by the fact that I am saying this in front of cameras.

This is the rule that we follow. Of course, there are known forces  that always want to and they are lobbying the American and European  press to make it look like that Armenia is a black hole in that  sense, but currently, on the official level we do not have any  objections or complaints by the European or American partners, or by  Russia, because we do not want to play tricky games with our  partners, we are saying this clearly and our position is legitimate.   This is not to say that everything is perfect. There is another thing  that the sanctions regime often changes, and in reality, even if  something had to be done, it wouldn't necessarily be done by the  government. It is the private sector that is moving goods around. We  are doing our best to make sure that everything is done in accordance  with the rule that I just mentioned. It's my opinion and also the  opinion of our international partners that we are able to do this and  we will continue to do this," the Premier noted.  It should be noted  that 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, and exports from Europe to Armenia, Kazakhstan and  Kyrgyzstan suspiciously increased by 15-90%.  The authors of the  report did not rule out that a significant part of the additional  exports to Central Asia and the Caucasus was redirected to buyers in  Russia. In April, the US Treasury Department announced it was  tightening its controls on countries suspected of facilitating  parallel imports.

Let us add that on June 29, US State Department representative for  sanctions Jim O'Brien visited Yerevan, where he held talks with the  country's top leadership.