By Rachel Avraham
It was recently reported that Armenia has been continuing to trade with Russia despite the heavy sanctions imposed by the West against the country in 2022. As a result, 20 Armenian companies were banned due to the fact that they continued to do business with Putin’s Russia, despite the war in Ukraine, which has created the greatest humanitarian disaster in Europe since World War II.
In fact, there are even reports that Armenian companies are helping Russia to bypass a Western embargo on the gold trade. Since 2022, billions of dollars’ worth of gold has been imported to Armenia, but did not remain within the country. An unprecedented amount ended up in the United Arab Emirates, while cash and securities went from the United Arab Emirates to Armenia. Various media outlets reported that it is profitable for Russia to trade through Armenia, since the South Caucuses country does not levy import taxes and trading via private individuals helps Russia to evade sanctions.
Gold was one of the first Russian exports to be embargoed in the wake of the war in the Ukraine. The United States described gold as “one of the country’s largest non-energy exports.” The embargo only formally implies to imports to the United States. However, even if the tainted gold is purchased by another country, it remains unsellable in the United States, meaning that banks will not buy it for investment or trading, thus making the embargo global.
Since the war began in the Ukraine, the main purchasers of banned Russian gold include the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and several other countries. Prior to the embargo, the main purchaser of Russian gold was the United Kingdom, but this is no longer the case, as the British comply with the Western imposed sanctions on Russia. However, since 2022, Armenia has become a major gold exporter, because they are reselling Russian gold on the global market to help Russia bypass Western imposed sanctions.
For example, the Yerevan Jewelry Factory was opened in 2022, the very year the sanctions went into effect. According to a report in the Azerbaijani media, the company re-exports large quantities of Russian origin jewelry, claiming that they are from Armenia. In this way, Russian jewelry originating in three dozen Russian companies was “whitened,” thus bypassing Western imposed sanctions. And they are not alone in this business. In 2020, Armenia’s jewelry exports amounted to $26 million. But in 2023, a year after the Russian sanctions went into effect, these numbers rose to $499 million. In this way, the Russian economy is able to stay afloat despite Putin’s crimes against humanity in the Ukraine.
It is critical to note that this gold originating from Russia that Armenia is reselling to other countries is being used to fund crimes against humanity in the Ukraine. Human Rights Watch recently reported “Ukrainian men detained by Russian and Russian-affiliated forces, including prisoners of war, regularly report that their captors, including penitentiary staff, engaged in sexual violence. Reports include rape, threats of rape, forced penetration with foreign objects, electric shocks to genitalia, and other forms of torture. The abuse is said to punish, intimidate, demoralize, or extract confessions.”
Human Rights Watch continued: “Sexual violence has been committed against both women and men. While sexual violence disproportionately affects women detainees, male prisoners are likely to experience it more often than documented. A military psychologist who worked at Sanzhary Hospital, a Ukrainian state-run facility for former POWs, told me that about 80% of the former detainees she assisted had experienced sexual violence in Russian captivity.”
Human Rights Watch also added: “Russia’s war against Ukraine has had a devastating, lasting impact on Ukrainian children’s access to education. The Ukrainian government reported that nearly 4,000 educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed since the full-scale invasion in February 2022. In Russia-occupied areas, children are subjected to the Kremlin’s anti-Ukraine propaganda, in violation of international humanitarian law. Active hostilities put children at risk and disrupt education.” Armenia, by reselling Russian gold to the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, China and other countries, is helping to fuel this horrific system, where Russia commits war crimes and crimes against humanity against innocent Ukrainian civilians. In this sense, they are partners in crime with Putin’s Russia and just as complicit in these war crimes as the Russians are.
