TUNDRA TABLOIDS
Groups previously accused of giving illicit assistance to Iran, Syria.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday removed sanctions against three Russian organizations the US had previously accused of assisting Iran's effort to develop nuclear weapons.
Penalties against a fourth Russian entity previously accused of illicit arms sales to Syria were also lifted.
The timing of the decisions, published in Friday's Federal Register but not otherwise announced by the State Department, suggested the possibility of a link to US efforts to win Russian support for a new UN Security Council resolution expanding sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
The State Department on Friday did not immediately respond to questions about lifting the sanctions.
Two of the entities — Dmitri Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology and the Moscow Aviation Institute — had been sanctioned in January 1999 under a 1994 executive order authorizing such action. The order was aimed at organizations determined to have contributed to a foreign country's development or production of weapons of mass destruction or missiles capable of launching such weapons.When the administration of former US president Bill Clinton announced those sanctions, then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said the two institutions "directly support Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons."
At the time, the Russian government denied such support for Iran.
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