In 2021, Russia set a record for the supply of cartridges and their components to the United States for the first time since the 1990s, RBC reports, citing foreign trade data from the US Census Bureau (an analogue of Rosstat). This result was achieved in the context of the existing sanctions, which are directed against the import of small arms from Russia.
From January to October 2021, American companies imported $ 157.9 million worth of Russian firearms ammunition.The previous record was set in 2016 – $ 148 million for the entire year, it was broken thanks to shipments in October 2021 for $ 15.4 mln. According to the UN Comtrade base, deliveries of Russian cartridges for nine months of 2021 exceeded 7.7 thousand tons, compared to 5.2 thousand tons for the whole of 2020. According to UN data, over 94% of all Russian cartridges are exported to USA, EU countries ($ 2.7 million in 2020), Canada ($ 1.5 million) and Thailand ($ 0.6 million), writes RBC.
American companies, according to the newspaper, managed to “find a loophole” and obtain licenses for supplies despite the sanctions that came into force on September 7. They were introduced in August 2021 in connection with the situation around the possible poisoning of Alexei Navalny. The sanctions restrict the “permanent import” of small arms and ammunition from Russia to the United States by refusing to grant new import licenses to American importers.
Despite the restrictions imposed, American companies had the opportunity to manage to issue import permits in the interval between the announcement of the sanctions and their implementation. Such licenses, issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) under the US Department of Justice, are valid for two years even with existing sanctions, RBC noted.
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