MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti) - Sanctions against Russia will negatively affect Austrian businesses, Christoph Leitl, head of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce stated Wednesday, as reported by The Local website.
“As (sanctions) are now, we expect exports to fall around 20 percent this year versus last year and in tourism the collapse in Russian guests is already very strikingly tangible,” he stated, quoted by The Local website.
Leitl is one of the opponents of strengthening sanctions against Russia. “I am still against sanctions, but if the politicians decide otherwise then of course one is bound to this,” he noted, quoted by The Local website.
Analysts suggest that the sanctions will hit Austrian banks the hardest, especially Raiffeisen.
On Tuesday the European Union agreed a new set of economic sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis, which will limit access to EU capital markets for Russian state-owned financial institutions, impose an embargo on trade in arms, establish an export ban for dual use goods for military end users, and curtail Russian access to sensitive technologies particularly in the field of the oil sector.
Russia has repeatedly called the “language of sanctions” counterproductive and said these measures would have a boomerang effect.
