MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - Western economic sanctions have had no significant impact on the construction of exploration equipment in the Arctic; problems may occur only with the use of American equipment, the head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (OSK) Alexei Rakhmanov said Wednesday.
"As of today we are not experiencing any issues for the projects which are being constructed," Rakhmanov said, adding that the company foresees "quite a big problem" with the use of the American equipment.
Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation is involved in 80 percent of Russian shipbuilding projects, including the best shipbuilding and ship repair enterprises, as well as the administration of the projects.
The company's civil shipbuilding projects include the construction of oil rigs, shelf exploration equipment and ice-class vessels used for Arctic exploration.
The OSC was put on the US sanctions list in July. The restrictions froze the company's assets in the US and prohibited US citizens and businesses from engaging in any kind of operations with the company.
Commenting on the news of the sanctions being imposed, Rakhmanov responded that the OSK may cease to use the US dollar in its accounts. And Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin suggested that the United States imposed sanctions against the OSK because Russian military shipbuilding had become a problem for countries hostile to Russia.
