MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – The sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia are not having any effect on the fulfillment of Russian state defense orders, CEO of Russia's state high-tech Rostec corporation Sergey Chemezov said Thursday.
"The sanctions are having a negative impact on our country and our partners, but they are in no way affecting the state defense orders," Chemezov told journalists, adding that Russia purchases Western components only for the supply of equipment to third parties.
"We lose – our partners lose. We have very close ties with French and Italian companies in this sphere," Chemvezov noted.
The Russian government is currently working on an import substitution program to replace Western components used in the country's defense industry, affected by sanctions imposed by the West. The program is expected to be adopted in October.
A number of Western countries have introduced several rounds of sanctions against Russia, targeting its oil, defense and banking sectors, following Crimea's reunification with Russia in March. The restrictive measures were introduced over Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict.
Russia has repeatedly stressed that it is not involved in the situation in Ukraine and that the language of sanctions is counterproductive.
In August, Russia introduced a one-year ban on certain food imports from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and Norway in response to the sanctions they had imposed against Moscow.
