On Monday, October 16, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin demanded that the U.S. lift sanctions that the U.S. had imposed on two Russian firms. The sanctions at issue were imposed on August 4, 2006, by the State Department’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (“ISN”).

The ISN slapped sanctions on Rosboronexport and Sukhoi for transferring sensitive technology to Iran in violation of the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000. Rosboronexport is the firm that handles most arms exports from Russia and Sukhoi manufactures military and civilian aircraft. Rosoboronexport is chaired by Sergei Chemezov, an ex-KGB officer and friend of Vladimir Putin’s.

In imposing the sanctions, the ISN did not provide any details as to the particular transfers that were the basis for the imposition of sanctions. The ISN sanctions prohibit exports to either company of items on the ITAR or the CCL. The ISN sanctions list can be found here. (And you thought you knew the names and locations of all the export sanctions lists, didn’t you? Well, unless you knew about the ISN list, you didn’t.)

Monday’s statement by Churkin issued a not-so-veiled threat to hold new U.N. Iran Sanctions hostage if the U.S. does not lift the sanctions on Rosboronexport and Sukhoi:

If Russia is asked to vote on a Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment at the same time that Russian companies are subject to U.S. sanctions, it would be voting on a measure “which at least by implication supports sanctions which have already been imposed on us,” [Churkin] said.

In my view, the U.S. will be more than willing to use these sanctions as a bargaining chip to gain Russian support in the Security Council for expanded multilateral sanctions against Iran.

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