American business refused to leave Russia
Russia and the United States will be able to build effective cooperation only through dialogue and without attempts to impose their will.
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The new Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, spoke about this in an interview with Kommersant, answering the question whether it is possible to improve relations between Russia and the United States without lifting American sanctions on the Russian Federation?
“First of all, it must be said that unilateral restrictive measures are a violation of international law and, moreover, have a double-edged character. Although restrictions in a number of areas hinder us, they do not harm us any more than they harm American exports, which Donald Trump undertook to stimulate in order to create jobs.
Against the backdrop of an unfavorable market situation and sanctions, bilateral trade dropped by almost a third - from $29 billion in 2014 to $20 billion last year. But it was American exporters, not Russian consumers, who suffered the main damage. We even benefited from the current situation by stimulating domestic production and developing trade relations with other countries. Those companies from the United States lost especially a lot, which their own authorities forced to curtail promising projects in Russia - such as Exxon Mobil’s plans to extract oil on the Arctic shelf, in which $10 billion were invested,” the diplomat noted.
“It is also significant that American business, despite pressure from the previous White House leadership, did not want to leave our market. The delegation of the US business community, representing 140 companies, became the largest at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017,” added the Russian Ambassador to the United States.
At the same time, he pointed out that Russia has never asked and does not intend to ask for the lifting of sanctions.
“Be that as it may, it is obvious that Russia and the United States will be able to build effective cooperation only when instruments of pressure are no longer used in the dialogue, and there is no room left for blackmail and attempts to impose their will. The ball in this case is in Washington’s court,” Antonov concluded.
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