YEREVAN. - New U.S. sanctions will hardly hit Russia as strongly as at the end of 2014, Armenian Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan told reporters on Thursday, commenting on the package of new sanctions that the US House of Representatives approved the day before.
“Russian economy has already adapted to work under such sanctions. Therefore, this time the markets reacted more calmly to the news. Ruble exchange rate has fallen slightly, but not as it was at the end of 2014. Therefore, there is no need to wait for a boomerang effect for Armenia in the form of reduction of transfers or decrease in purchasing power of Russians for Armenian products,” the minister said.
In particular, the new package suggests strengthening restrictions on transfer of technologies from the US for exploration and production of the Russian oil in deep-water fields and the Arctic shelf and in shale formations.