NEW YORK, February 10. /TASS/. The US business community has admitted in informal conversations that the sanctions against Russia are absolutely farfetched, and it is dissatisfied with this state of affairs, Russia’s Consul General in Houston Alexander Zakharov told TASS on Friday.

"In informal conversations they admit that those [sanctions] are absolutely hyped-up, far-fetched restrictions. Prior to the sanctions, the Russian side supplied around 700,000 barrels of oil and petroleum products, of which 500,000 barrels were supplied to the American south, that is, toTexas and Louisiana," he noted.

"Apart from oil and gas, this is also agriculture, aircraft construction, import of chemical fertilizers, the US’ export of transportation equipment, computers, and electronics," the diplomat detailed. "Cooperation was underway on a lot of items. The potential here for trade and economic cooperation is enormous," he added.

Several years ago, southern states, including Texas, accounted for 25-30% of all Russian-US trade turnover per year, Zakharov said. "The Americans are absolutely dissatisfied with this [current] state of affairs," he pointed out.