Updated on 03:03 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia should increase the domestic production of aircraft and spare parts in the view of Western sanctions, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday.
“We don’t know how our business partners would behave in the future, because, regretfully, they are fully dependent on political authorities, and these political authorities do not always act in a predictable way,” Medvedev said, adding that currently, about 80 percent of civil aircraft in Russia are foreign-made.
Medvedev noted that Russia is not rejecting foreign aircraft but focusing on a more active development of the domestic aircraft production sector.
Western media reported Monday that a new round of sanctions that the European Union plans to impose against Russia would target several key Russian oil and defense industry companies. Russian banks would also be affected.
Late Friday, a number of European politicians said the European Union would announce its final decision regarding new economic sanctions against Russia on Monday.
The latest round of restrictions limited the raising of capital in the European Union for a number of Russian banks.
The United States and the European Union have been introducing sanctions against Moscow since Crimea’s reunification with Russia in March, which the West considers illegal, and Russia claims to be fully legitimate.