MOSCOW, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A Russian parliamentarian Friday slammed U.S. sanctions imposed on some major Russian armaments companies.
"(Our) U.S. partners are once again acting superficially and shortsightedly," said Konstantin Kosachev, head of the State Duma International Affairs Committee according to a report carried by the RIA Novosti news agency. "Export control in Russia is strict, and all arms sales are in full compliance with control regime mechanisms and Russia's international obligations," he said.
Kosachev was responding to a report that the U.S. government was putting tough new economic sanctions "on three Russian companies and organizations -- arms exporter Rosoboronexport, the Tula Instrument-Making Design Bureau, and the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau -- for allegedly selling missiles and weapons goods to Iran and Syria." The sanctions were earlier reported in the The Washington Times newspaper.
"Rosoboronexport said it regards the U.S. sanctions as a form of unfair competition," RIA Novosti said.
"We believe that the imposition of new sanctions is a manifestation of unfair competition with respect to us, as well as to the Russian Federation as a whole," company spokesman Valery Kartavtsev said. He told RIA Novosti that his company had yet to hear any official confirmation about such sanctions which would be enforced by the U.S. State Department.
"We are therefore not in a position to comment on the situation," he said.
"The sanctions ban the companies from conducting business with U.S. companies for two years," RIA Novosti said.
"Last July, Washington accused two Russian companies -- combat jet maker Sukhoi and Rosoboronexport -- as well as several counterparts from India and North Korea, of violating the U.S. Nonproliferation Act of 2000 by selling weapons to Iran," the report said. "The United States lifted its sanctions against Sukhoi in mid-November," it said
