MOSCOW, June 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Neither economic nor political isolation of Russia is possible and sanctions against Russia will only cause a loss of mutual benefit and undermine confidence, Russian parliamentary lower house Speaker Sergei Naryshkin told an international investment conference in Moscow on Friday.

The forum, organised under the patronage of the Russian Investment Council, aims to ensure investment growth in Russia.

“On the one hand, we have both political and macroeconomic stability to attract large investments, but on the other, we cannot ignore numerous factors putting the brakes on the economy,” Naryshkin said.

“There is blatant and open pressure on foreign governments and corporations to stop co-operation with Russia. And this is especially obvious in the fuel and energy sector,” he said, noting "a keen struggle for access to resources and infrastructure”.

“The Ukrainian crisis has confirmed once again that this struggle is led by methods far from fair competition,” he said. “These actions have no prospects and will lead to nothing except loss of mutual benefit and dented confidence.”

As an example, the politician named the International Economic Forum in the Russian city of St. Petersburg in May.

“We have concluded contracts totalling more than 400 billion roubles (about $11.8 billion),” Naryshkin said, adding that this meant that “neither economic nor political isolation of Russia is possible”.

“Creation of the Eurasian Economic Union opens up new and significant opportunities,” he said. “Both co-operation ties and the whole common market for goods, services, capital and labour are expanding and, what is particularly important for investors, the planning time-frame is growing.”

Speaking about investment growth, Naryshkin said: “This is one of the central tasks of our state’s economic policy.”

“Solving this task is connected, among other things, with two components - good lawmaking and efficient law enforcement,” he said. “The economy is, first of all, interested at this point in investments in technological modernisation of enterprises and infrastructure development.”