On August 20th the State Department decided that it was going to be adding import restrictions to Russia in pursuant to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991. The state department claims that these new import restrictions are repercussions for Russia poisoning Aleksey Navalny, Sergey Skripal, and Sergey’s daughter. Here’s how the restrictions are laid out on the State Department’s website:
- Restrictions on the permanent imports of certain Russian firearms. New and pending permit applications for the permanent importation of firearms and ammunition manufactured or located in Russia will be subject to a policy of denial.
- Additional Department of Commerce export restrictions on nuclear and missile-related goods and technology pursuant to the Export Control Reform Act of 2018.
These restrictions can only be removed after 12 months by the executive branch (the president, AKA Biden) once it has been certified that the Russians have met several conditions outlined in the CBW Act.
Now… before you scramble to stock up on the best steel cased ammunition out there (TulAmmo) let’s outline a few things.
These new import restrictions read as if they’re only going to affect pending applications after September 7th (when these new restrictions begin) and new applications after September 7th. Meaning, TulAmmo, among others, can continue to import ammunition into the United States until their current permits expire in 2023. While this is something worth worrying about, as it’s essentially gun control via import restrictions, it’s important to remember that Wolf currently has a manufacturing facility in the Ukraine.
With the United States being one of the biggest, if not the biggest, importer of ammunition it is likely that TulAmmo and others fill follow suit, build facilities in “friendly” countries to the United States, and being reimporting into the United States once their permits expire to export out of Russia.
Image From: Freedom Fried Father