MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. The Russian-American agreement on diesel fuel supplies could become a promising precedent for how sanctions might be lifted or suspended, provided the United States is economically and politically interested in it, Russian presidential commissioner for the protection of entrepreneurs' rights, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) Alexander Shokhin told TASS.
"There was an old Soviet-era ditty, which said: ‘A friend and I worked together on a diesel engine’, and I wouldn't want our Russian-American deal to end the same way that that ditty does. However, I think that this is a very promising story because it turns out that when there appears a genuine economic or political interest, including domestic political interest, in the case of the American side, sanctions can be lifted or suspended. This is a good example for a country like Germany, where we see that Alternative for Germany is gaining votes not merely because of its opposition to excessively lenient migration policy, but tariffs are rising, prices are climbing, the industrial sector is faltering, and some industries have shut down entirely," Shokhin said in his first interview after being appointed business ombudsman.
In European Union countries, the automotive industry is currently surviving only because they're now producing weapons, he noted.
"Therefore, they are probably behaving so aggressively toward Russia in the case of Ukraine as well. And, fundamentally, one can only hope that [US President Donald] Trump manages to retain at least the Senate, perhaps by ensuring that diesel prices in the United States do not rise," Shokhin said, adding that logistics and transport flows are road-based in the US, and large trucks require diesel fuel.
"Therefore, it’s not a bad example, and the pragmatism of Trump and the American administration could prove contagious here," he concluded.