US-Russia trade restriction

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Jun 3, 2017
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I live in the US and wish to purchase an item from Russia. Currently, all the US importers list this item as unavailable due to trade restrictions. I am wondering what the scope of the trade restriction really is? All i can find online is political BS and that it mainly is targeting banks and oil, which is clearly false. Can i, as an individual, purchase the item from a Russian individual? If i find a seller from a third country, will they be able to ship it to me? I so far haven't had any luck, but maybe i need to use an international web browser, or something that will show business websites from other countries. I'm not worried at all about ahipping costs as long as it's not much more than $50.
 
I wasn't able to find anything from the State dept specifically saying specific things can't be imported from Russia. Most of the time, Customs import restrictions apply to an item no matter what country it comes from, or all trade with a country might be restricted. Sometimes the other country will pass a law prohibiting businesses within their country from exporting certain items.

Now this being bladeforums, I can say that both switchblades and ballistic knives are prohibited imports regardless of what country they come from. If the thing you want to buy isn't a knife or other edged weapon at all, then technically this thread is off topic and I don't know if we'll be able to help.
 
I don't want to give away too many particulars in case somewhere out there has seen this listing, but there's a pretty good deal on a machine for my knife shop but the machine is broken and needs a part that is only made in one specific factory in the whole world, which is in russia.

I know this isn't exactly the stereotypical prototype of a "knife law" thread. But it is related and every other forum (not on bladeforums) I've asked this question, the thread was locked by moderators... I mean somerhing like this has to be made public, doesn't it? Why is it so hard to answer such a simple question
 
I'm digging, but just not finding it. I'm hoping somebody else might have something helpful, but a possibility is the importers you are looking at are mistaken or even liars. The knife and gun community is has it's share of morons who misinterpret or misreport legal restrictions , or who outright lie to avoid conversations they don't want to have. The importer may for example not want to do business with Russia because of [insert political reason] and just being claiming there are import restrictions. Have you tried contacting any of the importers to request the details of this alleged restriction? If they refuse to reply or give you the run around, that's a pretty good sign they're not being honest.
 
I'm sure you're right. Businesses often impose their own policies above and beyond the laws. For example a lot of places won't sell knives to kids even when it's legal to do so. I will get someone on the phone and see what they say. Maybe i can persuade a canadian business to acquire it on special order.

Maybe if it's so hard to get parts i should find a domestic machine... Hopefully people will chill out with their political nonsense soon
 
I'm sure you're right. Businesses often impose their own policies above and beyond the laws. For example a lot of places won't sell knives to kids even when it's legal to do so. I will get someone on the phone and see what they say. Maybe i can persuade a canadian business to acquire it on special order.

Maybe if it's so hard to get parts i should find a domestic machine... Hopefully people will chill out with their political nonsense soon
Why don't you get a local machine shop to make you a custom replacement part?
 
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