Russia fails to circumvent sanctions on hi-tech goods, says US official

By: MRT Desk

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Russia is trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to circumvent Western sanctions on high-tech products for military purposes and for its energy sector, and is having difficulty obtaining international financing, a U.S. official said on Friday. high rank.

Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom have imposed a series of sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in February, blocking access to its own foreign exchange reserves, financial markets and advanced Western technology, to reduce the war capacity of the Kremlin.

“We see that sanctions are working,” US State Department sanctions coordinator James O’Brien told reporters during a visit to Brussels for talks with European Union representatives. “We know that Russia is trying to get equipment and financing. We don’t think it is succeeding.”

“We see a lot of substitution for lower quality items.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims the West’s economic “blitzkrieg” has failed, though he has admitted $1.8 trillion in damage to the economy.

Some EU representatives are concerned that China or India could help Moscow circumvent sanctions by selling equipment that could be used for military purposes, but O’Brien said Russia had tried and failed to obtain material this way. .

“Russia is now in the situation of having to buy from unknown vendors at uncertain prices and get equipment of unknown quality. There is no way to run a modern economy on that basis,” he said.

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