On Friday, the Department of State announced that it had terminated sanctions against various Russian entities. First, it lifted sanctions that it had imposed on Rosoboronexport in 2008. Second, it lifted sanctions on the D. Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology of Russia and the Moscow Aviation Institute that it imposed on January 19, 1999 on the basis of a determination that the two entities had “engaged in proliferation activities related to Iran’s nuclear and/or missile programs.”

According to this article in the New York Times, the U.S. traded off these sanctions to secure Russia’s cooperation in the new U.N sanctions on Iran. The Times quoted one critic of this trade-off:

John R. Bolton, who was acting ambassador to the United Nations under Mr. Bush, said Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, got the upper hand on the Obama team. “He sensed desperation in the Obama administration on this Iran resolution, and probably extracted all that the traffic would bear,” he said. “The only remaining question is what else he got that we don’t yet know about.”

This makes the lifted sanctions seem a bigger deal for the Russian entities than they probably were. All three entities were subject to bans on U.S. government procurement and foreign assistance as well as prohbitions on any U.S. imports from these entities. Because neither company was likely to be a federal government contractor, likely to be recipient of federal aid or engaged in export of items to the United States in any significant quantity, these sanctions were more symbolic than anything else.

Rosoboronexport was also subjected to a ban on U.S. government arms sales and on issuance of any license to export defense articles from the United States to Rosoboronexport. These might have had a somewhat greater impact on Rosoboronexport but, again, it is doubtful that the company had been the recipient of many U.S. government arms sales nor of many U.S. exports of defense articles.

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