European companies have suffered damages worth hundreds of billions of dollars because of U.S. sanctions against Russia’s military-industrial complex, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.
“The damage is estimated not even in tens, but in hundreds of billions of dollars,” Rogozin said, according to Crime Russia.
Speaking of RIA Novosti, Rogozin added that U.S. threats to impose sanctions against buyers of Russian defensive enterprises’ production were an act of “unprecedented economic and diplomatic pressure on leaders of the countries which have been traditionally purchasing Russian arms.”
“Everything looks pretty hostile and, as I have already said, they pursue self-profit,” Rogozin said, stressing the need to develop “certain measures” to counteract the U.S. sanctions.
In early January, Rogozin reported on the creation of a special operational unit as part of the board of the Military-Industrial Commission. The committee is supposed to ensure sustainable development of the defense industry complex, as well as the sustainable fulfillment of the state order amid “the upcoming strengthening of the U.S. illegal sanctions.”
Earlier, Sergey Chemezov, the head of Russian state-owned Rostec corporation, called the actions of U.S. authorities “a clear example of unfair competition”. According to Chemezov, the American sanctions are in the interests of their own arms industry, which is trying to drive Russian weapons out of the market, despite them being “cheaper, but of as good quality as their American and European competition.”
However, according to Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin, the U.S. policy could even turn out to be profitable to the Russian defense industry.