Report: Russian economy may withstand new US sanctions – Moody’s

MOSCOW, Aug 6 (PRIME) -- The Russian economy is able to withstand even the unlikely scenario of the U.S. expanding its economic sanctions on the country’s sovereign debt, Bloomberg reported on Monday quoting international rating agency Moody’s Senior Vice President and analyst Kristin Lindow.

Lindow said that the Russian government’s measures to reduce investment in U.S. treasuries and to cut dependency on the U.S. dollar made the economy less sensitive to the threat of large-scale restrictions. Russia is ready to neutralize any possible impact from the new U.S. sanctions, Bloomberg reported with a reference to Lindow.

The analyst also assumed that the sanctions would unlikely cover Russia’s sovereign debt after the U.S. Department of the Treasury had warned senators that the sanctions may destabilize global markets. The example with aluminum giant UC RUSAL, when U.S. sanctions hit many markets outside Russia, should have become a lesson for them, Lindow said as reported by Bloomberg.

On August 2, a group of U.S. senators introduced a draft law on new anti-Russian sanctions, including sanctions against sovereign debt and politicians as well as caps for energy investment and restriction of uranium imports.

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