New US restrictions on Russian high-tech companies only confirm the ineffectiveness of Washington's illegitimate measures and American sanctions cannot force Moscow to drop its sovereign foreign policy course to protect national interests, the embassy of the Russian Federation in Moscow said on Wednesday.
"We noticed another attempt of the administration to quench the sanctions "itch." Once again, restrictions have been introduced against Russian high-tech commercial companies. And in relation to some of them, the restrictions are imposed for the second time," the diplomats stressed. "They point to the fact that the American side is running out of tools to pressure Russia. Such "jabs" by the United States are futile. They are simply unable to achieve the desired goal - to force our country to abandon a sovereign course in foreign policy and give up protection of its national interests," stated the embassy.
At the same time, diplomats pointed out the "detrimental effect of Washington's pressure on private business" and stressed that "as before, foreign partners will be the first to suffer from such restrictions. "This is exactly what is happening as a result of the White House's non-market initiatives to oust Russian exports from global food and energy markets," they added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Commerce Department added 24 foreign companies and organizations to its blacklist, 10 of which are based in Russia. The blacklist, in particular, includes Russian computer equipment producer Kraftway, Ruselectronics holding, Scientific Research Center of Electronic Computing and microchip producer PKK Milandr, as well as entities associated with it. In addition, Fibersense and Optolink were added to the list.
The list also included legal entities registered in Latvia, UAE, Pakistan, Singapore and Switzerland. As it was specified in the relevant document, the companies from the list will be subject to the "presumption of refusal" when considering applications for export licenses.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS