ST. PETERSBURG, June 19. /TASS/. Ukraine’s authorities have forced Russia to suspend economic cooperation between the two countries, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Federation Council, or upper house of the Russian parliament, said on Friday.
"They embarked on a path forcing us to take measure to substitute imports [from Ukraine], to begin to manufacture domestically those components that used to be manufactured within the framework of cooperation," she told the Rossiya-24 television channel. "We did not want it but we forced to do that."
She said that cooperation with Russia had sustained Ukraine’s economy, helped to create new jobs and develop the industrial sector.
At the same time, she stressed that import substitution measures were yielding good results. "The Russian government adopted 19 import substitution programmes in various sectors. It means more than 2,000 projects and they really work," Matviyenko underscored, adding that while visiting Russian regions she had seen import substitution production at small and medium businesses. "These products have high export potential, not just meant for domestic uses," she said.