MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) – The sanctions, imposed by Western countries against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine are unlikely to be lifted until 2016, the Director of the Russian-based EurAsEC Institute Vladimir Lepekhin said on Wednesday at a conference at the International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya.
“They will not be lifted soon, maybe not until 2016,” Lepekhin said at the round table "Russian economy in conditions of further sanctions from Western countries".
The director added that Russia may now have the opportunity “to create something of its own.”
According to Lepekhin, Russian authorities used to laugh at first when the sanctions were first imposed and “only now, half a year later, do they start to realize we are actually affected negatively by them.”
Following the reunification of Crimea with Russia, the West introduced several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia, notably targeting its oil, banking and defense sectors. Moscow responded with the adoption of a one-year ban on the import of certain food products made in the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway.
