ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - In an interview with The New Region, Russian Ambassador to Iraq Elbrus Kutrashev discussed Moscow’s relations with Baghdad and Erbil, US sanctions on Russian oil and gas giants, security cooperation with Iraq, and the fate of Russian troops in Syria.

Earlier in October, the US imposed sanctions on major Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil,  citing “a lack of serious commitmen to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.”

The firms have an active presence in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq’s oil sector, both in terms of fieldwork and investment.

Kutrashev asserted that while the sanctions may “complicate” managerial and routine work of the companies, “investment [in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region] will continue.”

“We have got used to sanctions. These new sanctions… do not affect much. I would say they do not affect anything,” he added, noting that the impact of the censures are limited to making the “managers’ work a bit more difficult.”

“These investments will grow,” the ambassador noted, assuring that main Russian companies who have made investments in the country are “planning to make it more.”

Russia’s total investment in Iraq is estimated at around 20 billion dollars “mostly in the oil and gas industry,” according to the diplomat.

Lukoil’s largest foreign investment is a 75 percent stake in Iraq’s West Qurna-2 oilfield, located northwest of Basra, which holds 13 billion barrels of oil, one of the biggest in the world.

Russia has “no agenda” in arming partners

Kutrashev stated that Russia “can give Iraq anything it needs and it wants,” in terms of providing military equipment and arms, as it has “no agenda” when it comes to arming its allied partners with security support.

“We have no agenda,” he asserted, accusing the US and European countries of harboring an agenda when assisting Iraq with arms, placing limitations and conditions on usage and ownership.

“If we give something to our friends we guarantee that they're free in using [it]," he said.

The ambassador added that “Iraq is improving,” in comparison to decades ago, which he believed could pave the way for enhanced security cooperation between the two countries.

In 2022, Kutrashev had argued that armed cooperation between Russia and Iraq would have “advanced to the level it was during the Soviet Union times,” had they not been “interfered with” by the US and its allies.