Economic response to Ukraine-imposed sanctions

Dmitry Medvedev’s answer to a media question.

Excerpts from the transcript:

Question: A presidential executive order on Russia’s response measures with regard to Ukraine was released yesterday. The President instructed you to develop them. When will the proposals be drafted, whom will they affect and will they affect ordinary Ukrainians?

Dmitry Medvedev: The proposals under the executive order will be drafted shortly. I already have several Government resolution drafts on my desk. Of course, these resolutions follow the point of the executive order. They focus on the fact that the sanctions are imposed on the people who harm Russia’s interests. Meanwhile, neither the executive order, nor the Government resolution will apply to Ukrainians in general, this is absolutely unacceptable. On the contrary, we have the most friendly feelings towards the Ukrainian people. However, individuals who have caused harm to Russia’s interests and commit actions designed to cause damage to our country, will be the objects of these resolutions.

What are the implications? We are speaking, first, about freezing their assets in Russia, that is, they will not be able to use them in any way.

Second, there will be a ban on wiring funds that are located in Russia, that is, the ban on capital exports.

And finally, imports of certain Ukrainian-made goods into Russia will be banned.

Perhaps, it is not that common to talk about it – in any case, our Ukrainian colleagues tend to not emphasise this – but Ukraine’s trade with Russia is fairly significant. We are talking about billions of roubles, which is quite a lot for Ukraine. In other words, despite all the difficulties in recent times and all the bans and restrictions that they have already imposed on our country, the share of the Russian market for Ukrainian exports and the Ukrainian capital remains quite significant. In other words, we remain Ukraine’s largest foreign trade partner.

Such measures will be taken, indeed. As for the individuals and legal entities, these lists are being drafted. Regarding individuals, there will likely be hundreds of people affected whose actions have caused harm to our country’s interests. There will be businesspeople and others. It is up to Russia to decide on the proposals that the Government will come up with. The list also includes Ukrainian companies, legal entities incorporated under the laws of Ukraine that are controlled by the individuals that these sanctions will apply to.

These documents will be on my desk soon, and I will sign them. We will provide a comment once they are fully drafted. There will be many relatively well-known people on the list.