The United States on Thursday lifted sanctions on six Russian companies and a Russian arms expert it had imposed over the past nine years for arms and technology sales to rogue nations.
In notices published in the Federal Register, the State Department said it had waived penalties "in the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States."
The six firms were identified as Europalace 2000, Grafit, MOSO Company, the Scientific Research and Design Institute of Power Technology, TZNII Central Scientific Research Institute of Precision Machine-Building and the Volsk Mechanical Plant.
Washington had slapped sanctions on four of the companies - Europalace 2000, Grafit, MOSO Company and the Scientific Research and Design Institute of Power Technology - in 1998 and 1999 for alleged sales of missile technology and components to Iran.
The TZNII Central Scientific Research Institute of Precision Machine-Building and the Volsk Mechanical Plant had been punished in 1999 for providing "lethal military equipment to a country determined by the secretary of State to be a state sponsor of terrorism."
The country in question was not identified in either the announcement that the sanctions had been imposed or the notice that they were being lifted.
At the time the penalties were put in place, the Russian government and the companies denied any wrongdoing.
The notices did not specify exactly why the penalties - which had included a ban on US assistance and export licenses and a bar on US government contracts - had been lifted. Sanctions imposed on a senior Russian arms expert, Anatoly Kuntsevich, for alleged "chemical weapons proliferation activities" in 1995 were also removed, according to a separate Federal Register notice.
The penalties were dropped because "reliable information indicated that (Kuntsevich) has ceased to aid or abet any foreign government, project, or entity in its efforts to acquire chemical and biological weapons capability," the department said.
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