MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. Russia needs to exercise restraint and develop an appropriate response to attempts by Western countries to detain its oil tankers or container ships, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin said in an interview with TASS.

"Clearly, there may be fewer purely economic elements here than political and military-political ones. In particular, there are already encroachments on container ships, not to mention the so-called shadow fleet and oil tankers. Of course, protecting them by escorting them, say, with naval vessels — we probably do not have enough naval capacity to escort every tanker and every container ship. Although, of course, some appropriate responses, including taking into account that these seizures involve the use of military force, may be possible. Frankly speaking, this is no longer a trade blockade of the kind of a continental blockade. Nevertheless, this is, in fact, a step toward an actual war. Therefore, we must show some restraint," Shokhin said.

According to him, under current conditions, certain international organizations have proved ineffective. He added that Western countries first began detaining tankers of the so-called shadow fleet and only later started creating a regulatory framework to justify those actions.

Shokhin also recalled threats to impose secondary sanctions and to pressure India and China not to purchase Russian oil. "All of this is, on the one hand, harsh, quasi-military, imperial pressure in a classical sense. On the other hand, it is a bargaining system aimed, in this case, at punishing Russia," he added.