Russia to counter US competition in defence industry

Russia will hedge against the risks in the defence industry market caused by unfair competition of the US, the Kremlin has said.

"Certainly, we are trying to hedge against the risks arising amid manifestations of unfair US competition on the market of military and technical cooperation as well as trade in special hardware on an international scale," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, commenting on Washington's claims that Russian defence sector seriously suffered from US sanctions, Xinhua reported.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Wednesday that Russia might lose contracts worth more than $3 billion as many countries stopped buying Russian products as a result of US extension of anti-Russian sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) signed into law in August 2017.

According to Nauert, the US has warned against signing contracts with Russian enterprises in the military industry and threatened to impose sanctions against countries, persons and organisations that violate the law.

Russia is aware that the US deliberately hampered Russia's military and technical cooperation with other countries, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday.

Noting that everything is under control, Peskov refrained from revealing details as "military-technical cooperation is a very sensitive area."

--IANS

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