Admin Bans Importation of
Russian Guns and Ammunition

On 20 August, 2021, the U.S. Department of State released a fact sheet announcing Russian firearms and ammunition importation will be banned for a minimum of 12 months starting 7 September, 2021. From state.gov:

New sanctions imposed today under the CBW Act include:

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.

The ban is listed as a sanction pursuant to the Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991, over the supposed Russian use of the "Novichok" chemical agent to poison Aleksey Navainy.

Navainy was poisoned in August of 2020. He has been critical of the Putin regime in Russia. This is a second round of sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States over the Aleksey Navainy incident. The first round of sanctions did not ban the importation of Russian ammunition or firearms.

The Department of State announcement says "New and pending permit applications" ... "will be subject to a policy of denial". The implication is applications which have already been approved will not be revoked.

If that is correct, shipments of ammunition and firearms from Russia which have already been approved will be allowed to enter the United States and be sold.

It is unclear how long supplies in the pipeline will last.

The announcement is likely to rekindle the ammunition bubble for calibers commonly imported from Russia, such as 7.62x54, 7.62x39, 5.45x39, 5.56x45, and even match grade .22 ammunition.

(©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.)