Russian Snipers Still Get Western Arms, Despite Embargo
A new investigation has found that Russian snipers are getting thousands of rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition from Western countries. This is happening despite a ban on arms sales to Russia since 2014.
The embargo was put in place after Russia invaded Ukraine. But the investigation shows that Western companies are still selling high-quality sniper rifles and ammo to Russia through other countries. This undermines the effectiveness of sanctions and gives Russian snipers access to better weapons.
The investigation found that companies from Europe, the US, and Türkiye have increased arms sales to several countries near Russia in recent years. These countries include Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
According to the United Nations, exports of arms to these countries have gone up significantly since 2020. In some cases, the increase was by hundreds or even thousands of percent. For example, Italy sold almost 30 times more rifles to Armenia in four years than it did previously.
One European company that has supplied sniper rifles to Russia is Beretta Holding from Luxembourg. A Russian arms importer linked to this company was banned by the US Treasury Department earlier this year.
Another supplier is a gun store in Colorado called ABF, which sold 53 rifles to Kazakhstan between 2022 and 2023. These rifles could potentially be transferred to Russia.
Many Russian snipers still use Western-made rifles and ammo instead of Russian ones. This was shown at a sniper competition in Crimea recently where only four out of 36 shooters used Russian ammunition.
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