MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti) - The new sanctions against Russia will have an impact on the Russian economy, while also negatively impacting the European countries, Charles Seville, Director in the sovereign team at Fitch Ratings in London, believes.
“Russia is in top-10 global economies, it’s a big market – so it will of course affect European countries particularly ones of export,” Seville told The Voice of Russia radio station, adding that the new round of sanctions against Russia will impact its economy. “All European countries have different ties to Russia – yes, there will be economic cost.”
“In common the EU economy is much more exposed than US’ to the Russian market. I think Europe does have more to lose, but you know I think that pressure in favor of sanctions have changed since the events of July 17th to the way that Europe thinks about this issue,” Seville said.
The European Union is mulling over new sanctions against Russia that are supposed to target entire sectors of the Russian economy and will be concerned with capital market access, the defense sector, dual-use goods and sensitive technology export in the energy sector.
“It’s important we don’t exactly know what the new round of measures are. But it will have some impact on the Russian economy,” Charles Seville said adding that foreign investors’ interest in Russia is declining which in turn leads to foreign direct investment going in.
“And Russian economy was already slowing when this happened so it essentially pushes Russia closer towards a recession,” Seville said warning it might have a serious impact on the European economy.
Following the crash of a Malaysian Boeing 777 in eastern Ukraine, the US Treasury introduced the so-called Sectoral Sanctions Identification List that affects companies and institutions in defense, energy and banking sectors of the Russian economy.
Earlier this year, the United States and the European Union imposed targeted sanctions against a number of Russian officials and companies as a response to Crimea’s reunification with Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry previously called the «language of sanctions» counterproductive and said these measures would have a boomerang effect on European economies.
