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.
