KRASNOYARSK, April 13. /TASS/. Russia will probably be obliged to favor non-US products and reject deals with American businesses, Deputy CEO of Vnesheconombank Andrei Klepach told TASS on Friday on the sidelines of the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum.
"For now, it is hard to weigh the economic sanctions against the damage sustained by our companies. Nevertheless, clearly certain measures should likely be taken to foster purchases of non-US products, while choosing to avoid dealing with US business in favor of others," the expert said.
Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and leaders of all parliament fractions introduced a draft law to the lower house of the Russian parliament on retaliatory measures against the hostile policies of the US and other countries. This step followed the expansion of US sanctions against Russia, which sent Russian markets plummeting and weakened the ruble.
Vnesheconombank vowed not to revise its macroeconomic outlook against the new wave of US sanctions.
On April 6, the US authorities imposed sanctions against a number of Russian officials, businessmen and companies. The list includes Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, VTB CEO Andrei Kostin, Renova owner Viktor Vekselberg, General Director of Surgutneftegaz Vladimir Bogdanov, Sibur board member Kirill Shamalov, businessmen Igor Rotenberg, Oleg Deripaska and Suleiman Kerimov.
Sanctions were also slapped on Russia’s Agro-Holding Kuban, EuroSibEnergo, Rusal, Russian Machines, GAZ Group, B-Finance, Basic Element, En+, Renova, Ladoga Management, Russian Financial Corporation, NPV Engineering and Gazprom Bureniye.