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Russia’s counter-sanctions draft may limit supply of US software

Shares of Russian companies, sovereign bonds and the ruble fell on Monday, reacting to US sanctions

MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/.Russia’s draft bill in response to Washington’s sanctions includes limiting supplies of technological equipment and software from the US, First Deputy State Duma Speaker Ivan Melnikov.

"The bill includes prohibiting or restricting the admission of technological equipment and software," he said.

On April 6, Washington announced that it was imposing new sanctions against a number of Russian officials, businessmen and companies. The list includes Oleg Deripaska, as well as Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, VTB CEO Andrey Kostin, Renova owner Viktor Vekselberg, Surgutneftegaz CEO Vladimir Bogdanov, Member of Sibur’s Board of Directors Kirill Shamalov, businessmen Igor Rotenberg and Suleiman Kerimov.

At the same time, the list of companies includes several structures related to Oleg Deripaska - agroholding Kuban, Eurosibenergo, Rusal, Russian Machines and GAZ Group, investment company B-Finance, as well as the Basic Element and En + holdings. In addition, Vekselberg's Renova group, Shamalov's Ladoga Management, Russian Financial Corporation (owned by Rosoboronexport, also on the list), NPV Engineering and Arkady Rotenberg’s Gazprom Bureniye were included in the list.

The fresh round of sanctions sent the Russian stock market and the Russian ruble into a downward spiral on Monday. In particular, the ruble-denominated MOEX Russia Index (previously MICEX) decline hit 9.5%, while the dollar-denominated RTS fell by 11.9%.