Altai company puzzled over U.S. economic sanctions

According to Nikolai Dochilov, the first deputy director general of the Federal Research and Production Center Altai, the center's senior managers are going to appeal to the Federal Agency for Industry and Rosoboronexport (a state mediator for military exports) to explain the situation regarding the United States' economic sanctions.

"Altai has not yet been provided with substantiation for such measures," Mr. Dochilov said. "Therefore, we are going to try and solve this situation with higher agencies - the Federal Agency for Industry and Rosoboronexport, a state structure that directly mediates all our foreign contacts."

According to him, Altai observes all international obligations related to nonproliferation of missile and other technologies as well as all relevant international obligations and therefore the United States' position "has no real basis."

Mr. Dochilov also noted that the enterprise had several dozen licenses in the major areas of its activity and its developments have made it possible to explore and introduce hundreds of new products and over 100 new technologies in serial production.

The resolution on the sanctions came into force on July 22, 2004. According to the official report published by the Federal Register Office, the U.S. State Department Bureau of Nonproliferation decided to impose sanctions on the Altai Center on July 15. The next day, the decision was put into writing and signed by Susan Burk, the assistant secretary of the State Department Bureau of Nonproliferation.

According to the document, Altai violated the nonproliferation regime of missile technologies and therefore economic sanctions were introduced against the organization. The sanctions include a two-year ban on any export contracts with the U.S. Federal Government and that Altai will be denied export licenses for two years.

Altai mostly specializes in explosive substances - composite materials, ultra-disperse diamonds and technologies of their use, fire fighting substances, instrumentation, automated workstations and medical equipment.

In response to the sanctions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said: "It is not the first time that Moscow is faced with an arbitrary introduction of U.S. sanctions against Russian enterprises that Washington suspects of violating nonproliferation regimes."

According to the document, typically the issue is the fully legitimate cooperation between Russian enterprises and foreign partners, which does not violate any Russian or international restrictions and that in every case, the sanctions were introduced against actions that fully complied with U.S. law.

"Anyway, in regard to these or any similar sanctions," the ministry said, "we would like to emphasize that if the United States finds it correct to limit its contacts with the leading Russian military and industrial sector enterprises, then it is the United States' choice."