US partially lifts sanctions concerning Afghanistan helicopter project against Russia
The United States has lifted some of the sanctions it imposed on Russia's state arms trader Rosoboronexport concerning a helicopter project, RIA news agency quoted Russia's Foreign Ministry as saying on Tuesday.
The U.S. decision showed a minor shift in its foreign policy towards Russia, after it sanctioned 11 companies linked to the Russian arms sector, restricting their exports to the U.S. in early September.
Russia has been under U.S. and EU sanctions over its annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine for two years.
With fighting occasionally flaring and both sides blaming each other for failing to implement truce terms, the Minsk peace deal looks moribund.
The EU agreed in June to extend energy, financial and defense sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine until the end of January next year.
Shortly after the European Union declared that its own economic sanctions on Russia will be extended, the U.S. had also announced its decision for impose further sanctions against the country.
The US. had added a total of 149 individuals including the Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, Russian Intelligence Agency President İgor Sergun and Crimean leader Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov to the Treasury blacklist.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had deemed the U.S.'s decision to extend sanctions as "illogical and hostile", saying that the decision will ruin the relations between the two countries. "This decision is the continuation of the policy destructive for bilateral relations between the two countries," Peskov had said, and added that counter measures would be taken after the decision was analyzed.
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