MOSCOW, October 3 (RIA Novosti) - Trade organizations from the United States have started a campaign to weaken sanctions imposed by the country on Russia, the Hill reported Friday.
According to the newspaper, groups such as the US-Russia Business Council and the National Foreign Trade Council have held meetings with lawmakers to "soften Russian sanctions legislation."
"Businesses are in a tight spot balancing the foreign policy considerations with the negative commercial consequences these sanctions may have on their own companies," former US Treasury official Elizabeth Rosenberg told the newspaper, commenting on the position of US businesses since the sanctions were imposed.
Relations between Russia and the West deteriorated amid the Ukrainian crisis, with Moscow repeatedly being accused of meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs. Following Crimea's reunification with Russia, the United States introduced a first round of sanctions against Russia, with its allies later following the move and drawing up their own blacklists.
In August, responding to western sanctions Moscow implemented a one-year ban on certain food imports from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and Norway.
