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Western sanctions to last long, but no new ones expected

SOCHI, September 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said on Saturday that Western sanctions would last long but there would most likely be no new ones.

“I think there will most likely be no new sanctions, but the sanctions that have already been imposed will last long. Regardless of the situation in Ukraine and even if all of the Minsk agreements [on peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine] are implemented, the sanctions will not be lifted,” he said at the Sochi International Investment Forum.

In his opinion, Russia will have to live under sanctions for a long time even though his ministry’s forecast envisions their possible lifting. “But I think this won’t happen,” Ulyukayev said.

The minister said the negative effect from the sanctions would make itself felt later. “It seems that it will occur in 2016-2017, not in 2014-2015,” he said.

“We will have to live with this for a long time and we have to be prepared to respond,” the minister said.

But he said Russia should respond not with counter-sanctions, “which is counterproductive, but by supporting the companies affected by the sanctions”.