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Shrinking of Russian-Slovene trade not dramatic, says minister

Nikiforov believes the task of increasing the trade turnover to 2 billion euro a year is quite realistic, as this level was registered several years ago

LJUBLJANA, July 30. /TASS/. Shrinking of the Russian-Slovene trade turnover is not dramatic an a return to growth in bilateral trade is achievable, believes the Russian Telecommunications Minister, Nikolai Nikiforov, who co-chairs on the Russian side the intergovernmental commission.

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"We’ve noticed a certain decrease of Russian-Slovene trade but it isn’t dramatic," he said on Saturday in a comment on the talks between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Borut Pahor.

Nikiforov also believes the task of increasing the trade turnover to 2 billion euro a year is quite realistic, as this level was registered several years ago.

When a reporter asked him if Putin and Borut had discussed the problem of the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions and countersanctions, he said: "I think this problem was definitely discussed."

He added that the Russian countersanctions concerned "very concrete sphere", adding that they did not pose any obstacles for cooperation in the rest of the spheres.

Russia and Slovenia have more than 30 large projects supervised by the intergovernmental commission, Nikiforov said.

In part, Russian companies have shown interest in building a railway line worth 1.5 bln euro in Slovenia, he said.

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