Russia has suspended all seafood imports from Armenia after imposing a partial ban earlier this month, the state-run news agency TASS reported Friday, citing Russia’s agricultural safety agency.
Apparently some 98% of Armenian seafood exports go to Russia so this is pretty devastating to that industry unless they get an alternate export market or get massively subsidized as the internal Armenian market cannot support the volume. Speaking more generally than seafood the Armenian economy has grown at a pretty good clip in recent years as a re-exporting node between western trade and Russia which can bypass around heavy sanctions to an extent and reap a windfall for it. The consequence is that since that raises exposure to the Russian economy, Russia is able to throw around its economic weight rather harder when Armenia does something it doesn’t like.
Apparently some 98% of Armenian seafood exports go to Russia so this is pretty devastating to that industry unless they get an alternate export market or get massively subsidized as the internal Armenian market cannot support the volume. Speaking more generally than seafood the Armenian economy has grown at a pretty good clip in recent years as a re-exporting node between western trade and Russia which can bypass around heavy sanctions to an extent and reap a windfall for it. The consequence is that since that raises exposure to the Russian economy, Russia is able to throw around its economic weight rather harder when Armenia does something it doesn’t like.