The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blacklisted on Wednesday more than 100 people and entities it said have violated U.S. export controls and helped Russia's war effort. The sanctions bar U.S. companies and individuals from any dealings with them and also freeze any assets the latter may hold in U.S. jurisdiction.
The newly blacklisted entities include, TAKO LLC, a little-known company registered in Armenia in May last year about three months after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
According to the Armenian state registry, TAKO is fully owned by a Russian national, Vadim Verkhovtsev, and specializes in wholesale trade in electronic and telecommunications equipment and parts. No other details of its operations are known.
TAKO’s registration address matches that of an office building in Yerevan. The building administration told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday that the company rented an office there until last fall.
The OFAC said that TAKO has cooperated with the Russian company Radioavtomatika regarded by it as a supplier of electronic items to Russia’s defense industry. The U.S. sanctioned Radioavtomatika last year.
TAKO is the first Armenia-based entity known to have been blacklisted by Washington in connection with the sweeping sanctions against Moscow. The development follows a series of meetings during which U.S. officials apparently pressed the Armenian government to comply with the sanctions.
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo discussed the issue with Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian in Washington on Tuesday. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Adeyemo “highlighted the United States’ global efforts to prevent evasion of U.S. sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia.”
In a joint “compliance note” issued month, the U.S. departments of Justice, Treasury and Commerce said that third-party intermediaries have commonly used China, Armenia, Turkey and Uzbekistan as “transshipment points” to Russia as well as Belarus.
Russian-Armenian trade skyrocketed last year, with Armenian exports to Russia nearly tripling to $2.4 billion. Goods manufactured in third countries and re-exported from Armenia to Russia are believed to have accounted for most of that gain.