August 7, 2006 :: Financial Times :: News
The U.S. State Department has imposed sanctions on two Russian companies for selling missile technology to Iran. The state-controlled weapons exporter Rosoboronexport and the aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi had been exporting material that could contribute to the development of weapons of mass destruction by Iran or a cruise or ballistic missile system, said the State Department.
The two companies will be barred from engaging in business with the U.S. government and will be denied new export licenses for two years. Earlier this year, the Pentagon raised the problem of the Kremlin’s arms sales to countries that “compromise the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of other states.” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had also said he was concerned that Russia was supplying arms to Iran and Syria.
The sanctions angered the Russian government, which responded that the move was an “illegitimate attempt to make foreign companies work by internal American rules” and that the U.S. was punishing its own companies by making it impossible for them to co-operate with leading Russian corporations. “These sanctions, which the U.S. unilaterally imposes on other countries and their organizations, are an obvious political and legal anachronism,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. The Financial Times notes that the head of Rosoboronexport, Sergei Chemezov, served as a KGB officer with Russian president Vladimir Putin in East Germany in the 1980s and has boasted that their relationship helped his company “get a lot of issues resolved fast.” (Article)
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