MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. Washington’s plans to impose sanctions on Russian defense companies are an example of unfair and obnoxious competition, Igor Pshenichnikov, an expert at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, told TASS on Friday.
"From the standpoint of defense, news sanctions seem ridiculous, like a circus show," he said. "It is no tragedy for Russia. Our aircraft will continue to fly, particularly in Syria, and our tanks will continue to move around and fire shells," he added.
"If Russian aircraft were produced at the US plants, then it would have been a tragedy for us. While as far as defense capabilities go, new sanctions are not important," the expert added.
"However, they definitely will help improve the quality of our weapons," he noted.
US seeks to dominate arms market
According to the Russian expert, the US "has been making every possible effort to take over the global arms market." "It is an example of unfair and obnoxious competition," Pshenichnikov stressed. "The new sanctions are aimed at leading our relations to an impasse that will be impossible to break, while bilateral relations have already plunged to the lowest level since World War II," he said.
"It is in the interests of neither Russia nor the United States. But unfortunately, the US establishment does not understand it," the expert added.
Besides, in Pshenichnikov’s words, the new sanctions will not only affect relations between Russia and the US. "The Americans will continue to exert pressure on their European allies in order to disrupt and erode any cooperation between Russia and other countries," he said.
"I am confident that most NATO member states will support this ‘initiative’ as they all have been following in Washington’s footsteps," the expert concluded.
New sanctions plan
The US media earlier published some documents stipulating that the Washington had compiled a list of Russian organizations and state agencies in an attempt to ban third parties from dealing with them at the risk of sanctions. A thing to note is that some of these organizations are already on the US blacklist.
The list includes 39 Russian companies, 33 of them are defense sector enterprises, such as the Admiralty Shipyard, Almaz-Antey Air and Space Defense Corporation, Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, Kalashnikov Group, Izhmash Concern, Kalinin Machine Building Plant, Rosoboronexport, Federal Research and Production Center Titan Barrikady, Mytishchinski Machine Building Plant, Oboronprom Corporation, Research and Production Corporation Uralvagonzavod, Dolgoprudny Research Production Enterprise, Russian Technologies State Corporation (Rostec), Radiotechnical and Information Systems (RTI) Concern and others.