The German business community calls ahead of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for Moscow and Berlin to stop the practices of economic restrictions which hurt German companies, the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce in Russia said on Friday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2018) The German business community calls ahead of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for Moscow and Berlin to stop the practices of economic restrictions which hurt German companies, the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce in Russia said on Friday.
On Saturday, Merkel and Putin will meet in Berlin. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the two leaders will "synchronize their watches" on the situations in Ukraine and Syria and discuss US economic pressure.
"On the eve of the [Merkel-Putin] meeting, the chamber calls for lifting the sanctions regime. Such is the position of 94 percent of respondents among 800 chamber's member firms. 37 percent of them speak in favor of immediate suspension of the Western sanction and 57 percent - of gradual relief," the commerce chamber said in a statement.
However, instead of lifting the anti-Russian sanctions, Washington was ready to impose further restrictions which could seriously affect German companies, Matthias Schepp, the chamber's chairman, said.
The United States and the European Union have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia over Moscow's alleged global destabilization efforts and suspected interference in domestic affairs of sovereign states. Moscow denied the allegations and retaliated by slamming similar economic restrictions.
Earlier in August, the US administration announced a new round of sanctions against Russia due to its alleged use of chemical weapons in the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK city of Salisbury. The restrictive measures are expected to take effect on or around August 22, according to the US State Department. Russian authorities have strongly refuted the allegations as groundless.
