Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un prior to their talks at the Far Eastern Federal University campus on Russky island in the far-eastern Russian port of Vladivostok on April 25, 2019. Photo by ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Treasury Sanctions Arms Dealer Who Attempted to Broker Deals Between North Korea and Russia
A new class of “merchants of death” may be emerging from the Russian war on Ukraine
The Kremlin’s war on Ukraine has led Russia to seek weapons and supplies from a variety of sources under increasingly isolated conditions. That’s giving rise to opportunists in the mold of infamous and recently-freed arms dealer Viktor Bout. On Thursday, the Treasury Department issued sanctions against another such opportunist: Slovokian citizen Ashot Mkrtychev.
Mkrtychev is accused of trying to forge an arms deal between Russia and North Korea between the end of 2022 and early 2023.
“With the support of Russian officials, Mr. Mkrtychev has been attempting to broker a secret arms agreement between Russia and North Korea. As part of this proposed deal, Russia would receive over two dozen kinds of weapons and munitions from Pyongyang,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Thursday.
Russia was also trying to send a delegation to North Korea, and was offering food to North Korea “in exchange for munitions,” he said, adding that “Any arms deal between North Korea and Russia would directly violate a series of UN Security Council resolutions.”
According to the statement from the Treasury Department, “Mkrtychev’s negotiations with {North Korean] and Russian officials detailed mutually beneficial cooperation” between the two countries, including payments and “barter arrangements. He confirmed Russia’s readiness to receive military equipment from the DPRK with senior Russian officials.”
The material included “commercial aircraft, raw materials and commodities to be sent to North Korea,” Kirby said. “We know that he worked with a Russian individual to locate commercial aircraft that was suitable for delivery to North Korea. And we know that he provided senior Russian officials with a list of goods that North Korea was interested in acquiring from Russia both via barter and financial payments.”
In the statement, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Russia “has lost over 9,000 pieces of heavy military equipment since the start of the war, and thanks in part to multilateral sanctions and export controls, Putin has become increasingly desperate to replace them…Schemes like the arms deal pursued by this individual show that Putin is turning to suppliers of last resort like Iran and the DPRK.”
Mkrtychev’s efforts were separate from the artillery shells North Korea was sending to Russia, said Kirby.