MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd August, 2018) Russia-US defense industry cooperation, limited by by recent sanctions, has already been largely curtailed, Chairman of the Russian parliament's upper house's Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said on Tuesday.
On August 8, US administration announced new two-stage sanctions against Russia over its alleged participation in the March poisoning attempt on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom. According to media reports, the first package of US sanctions implies a complete ban on the export of electronic devices and dual-purpose components to Russia.
"It is no coincidence that the very form in which these sanctions are implemented is simply monstrous in terms of the basic law principles: if the first phase involves the cessation of arms transfers and financing of arms purchases, the refusal of US state loans and bans on exports of goods and technologies, which are 'sensitive in terms of US national security,' all this has already been largely canceled (and where it is profitable for the US itself, in particular - in Russian-US space cooperation - the goods may be withdrawn from the list)," Kosachev wrote in Facebook.
Kosachev also added that the second stage of the sanctions, which might be enforced in November, goes even further: from blocking of any aid to Russia from international financial organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to a decrease or suspension of diplomatic relations, and even a complete ban on flights of Russian state-owned companies' aircraft to the United States.
On March 4, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury. The United Kingdom and its allies have accused Moscow of having orchestrated the attack with what UK experts claim was the A234 nerve agent, without presenting any proof. Russian authorities have strongly refuted the allegations as groundless.
