Moscow-. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov stressed today that Russia is one of the leading countries in the field of high technologies and the pressure of US punitive measures can hamper its development, but not stop it.
“The sanctions stimulate the recovery of Russian industry and provide our agriculture with favorable conditions for further growth in order to achieve full food self-sufficiency,” he told the TASS news agency.
The deputy foreign minister warned that such a situation does not mean that the country is closed to the outside world.
We remain open to dialogue with US companies, and many are considering whether to break with the Russian market under pressure from their government or continue their ties, he said.
“It’s your decision, we don’t hold anyone by force. However, we are taking the necessary measures so that their companies continue to operate, despite the decision of some corporate structures to leave our country. The well-being of Russian citizens must not suffer,” he said.
Riabkov also warned that the United States and the West are restricting and blocking their companies’ ability to invest in Russian government securities in order to cause the country’s debt default.
“Not only have they confiscated part of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves deposited with American banks, but they are also trying to direct us to pay off the national debt with export earnings, without hiding the goal of depleting our foreign exchange reserves,” he said.
In his opinion, Washington drafts anti-Russian restrictions “with manic persistence”.
In response to the more than 6,300 punitive measures currently being imposed on that country, Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 5 decreed that foreign currency debts to enemy countries should be paid in rubles.
According to the measure, debtor companies or the state itself can open an account in Russian banks on behalf of a foreign creditor and transfer payments in rubles at the central bank’s exchange rate on the day of the transaction.
Creditors from countries that have not imposed any restrictions on the Eurasian nation can be paid in euros or dollars if the Russian debtor has special permission to do so.
Earlier, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Moscow would only pay off its foreign currency debt if its foreign currency accounts were unblocked.