The U.S. Treasury Department, in a March 30 press release, reports it has sanctioned Slovakian national Ashot Mkrtychev (Mkrtychev) for attempting to facilitate arms deals between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). 

“Between the end of 2022 and early 2023, Mkrtychev worked with DPRK officials to obtain over two dozen kinds of weapons and munitions for Russia in exchange for materials ranging from commercial aircraft, raw materials, and commodities to be sent to the DPRK. Mkrtychev’s negotiations with DPRK and Russian officials detailed mutually beneficial cooperation between North Korea and Russia to include financial payments and barter arrangements. He confirmed Russia’s readiness to receive military equipment from the DPRK with senior Russian officials,” according to the press release.

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has thus blocked all property and interests owned by Mkrtychev that are in the United States, or in the possession or control of U.S. persons. 

TASS yesterday reported that Mkrtychev has denied the charges and that he was “surprised” upon hearing the news of being sanctioned.

“From Russia to [North] Korea I want to carry flour, wheat, chocolate, some canned goods. For a long time [North Koreans] bought it from China, but it’s expensive there. The Russians delivered food to the West, but now they can’t [do this]. so they have a surplus, and they want to sell [food]. I don’t sell weapons. I don’t have a company or a license for this,” TASS quotes Mkrtychev as saying.

Mkrtychev was accused in Slovakia in 2002 of allegedly organizing the contract killing of a competitor - an arms dealer. He was in pre-trial detention, but was released in 2010, as the prosecutor's office could not prove his guilt. 

Photo: Damir Sagolj/Reuters