Russia to lose $40 bn a year due to sanctions: Minister

Moscow, Nov 24 (IANS/EFE) Western sanctions against Russia triggered by its actions in Ukraine will cost the country's economy $40 billion a year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Monday.

In addition, the 30 percent drop in global oil prices over the last two months will cause Russia to miss out on annual earnings of between $90 billion and $100 billion, Siluanov said in comments reported by Russian media.

Siluanov made the assessment at a forum held at the Academy of Finance.

Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Western sanctions on Russia were aimed at "a regime change" and not intended to force the Kremlin to change its policy regarding Ukraine.

He explained that previously, sanctions against countries were formulated so that they would not hurt the social or economic framework and only selectively targeted the elite.

Now, he said, everything is upside down.

"Western leaders publicly state that the sanctions must hurt (Russia's) economy and stir up public protests," Lavrov said.

After the Ukrainian Crimea acceded to Russia in March, the European Union (EU), the US, Canada and other countries adopted a series of sanctions against Moscow which have been progressively hardened after the outbreak of the pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine.

In July, the EU agreed to restrict access to European markets for government-owned Russian bank capital, imposed an arms embargo and set a ban on exporting dual-use goods and oil sector equipment to Russia.

In response, Russia banned imports of food from countries of the EU.

--IANS/EFE

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