Brussels - The Russian economy and Russia as a great power will survive the selected sanctions on some industries adopted by the European Union on Tuesday, July 29 although these sanctions will have effects, Russia's permanent envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said.
“In any case, the damage on the European economy will be comparable
to the damage the EU is trying to inflict on the Russian economy, if not
greater. I think they in the European Union understand that. For that
reason, they reserve some niches on the tracks that are the most
sensitive to them even when they announce economic sanctions,” Chizhov
said in an interview with Interfax in Brussels.
“Every country protects these niches differently,” he said.
“For France, it’s clearly the Mistral contracts. For the UK, it’s
financial services for London City. For Germany and many other
countries, it’s, of course, energy cooperation,” Chizhov said.
Chizhov said he believes some of the measures proposed by the European Commission are totally artificial.”
“For example, the ban on the export of equipment for deepwater
drilling in the Arctic seas. There would, of course, be some logic in
that if Ukraine was an Arctic state,” the diplomat said.
Chizhov said it is now somewhat premature to speak in detail about
the scales of the possible damage form the sanctions, saying that “we
need to look at the specifics.”
Responding to a question on the measures Russia may take in response
to the sanctions adopted by the EU, Chizhov said: “[Russian Foreign
Minister] Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov said a very good thing about that at
a recent briefing: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth is not our method.'”
