MOSCOW, July 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Political rhetoric on the part of US leadership conceals a very practical willingness to eliminate real and hypothetical economic competitors. Such a conclusion can be drawn from the fact the new US sanctions target the defense manufacturing industry, mineral resource production and the financial sector of Russian economy, Vladimir Gutenev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Industries told ITAR-TASS.

“If you speak of the defense industry, the manufacturers that have been subjected to sanctions are the largest (Russian) and the most successful players on the international market of weaponry,” he said. “They shape up the portfolio of export contracts that, according to the Federal Service for Cooperation in Defense Manufacturing, exceeds $ 49 billion today — up by a factor of almost three over the past ten years.”

The most irritating factor for Russia’s opponents is that the Russian defense-oriented products are increasingly successful on international markets where arms purchases would previously be made mostly in the US and Europe, Gutenev said.

“In recent years, the potential buyers of Russian weaponry and defense technologies are influenced more often not only by the correlation of price and quality but almost by the absence of “undeclared capabilities” in such products.

In addition, international customers are increasingly confident that the terms for supplies and operation of Russian products will not be linked to the attempts of third parties to meddle with their operation procedures.

Wednesday, the US announced additional sanctions against Russia over the situation in Ukraine.

The  blacklist has been expanded with the names of several other personalities, companies and organizations both in Russia and Ukraine.

The list contains the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republic, Vnesheconombank, Gazprombank, the oil corporation Rosneft, the Bazalt plant, the Feodosiya oil company, the KRET corporation of radio-electronic technologies, the Sozvezdiye company, the Mechanical Engineering R&D group, the Almaz-Antei aircraft manufacturer, the Kalashnikov corporation, the instrument-making design office, Uralvagonzavod corporation, and OAO Novatek.