As the US prepares further sanctions against Russia in response to its support for the Syrian regime, Moscow is still struggling to find ways to retaliate for the first salvo imposed this month. Measures to be debated in Russia’s parliament this week propose banning US companies from working with Russia’s aerospace and nuclear energy industries, potentially affecting big US groups such as Boeing and General Electric ...
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Arkady Dvorkovich, Russia’s deputy prime minister, said of the proposal put to parliament late last week. “Among other things, we will use separate restrictive measures against those countries that imposed sanctions against us to reduce supplies from them ... Of course, we will do everything so that domestic production does not decrease, but grows.”
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the draft law targets sectors where US companies rely on Russian products. Senior officials have stressed that Vladimir Putin will make the final decision and that measures adopted will not damage local companies.
Lawmakers behind the proposals said restrictions on co-operation in the nuclear energy, aerospace and rocket manufacturing sectors could be most effective given Russia’s heightened importance in these areas ...
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Rosatom, the national nuclear energy monopoly, supplies large amounts of enriched uranium to the US ... also works with US nuclear companies in repatriating and processing radioactive materials from third countries and co-operates with GE in nuclear fuel fabrication.
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Proposed measures would ban exports of titanium to the US, a move designed to hurt Boeing, the aerospace company, which buys about 35 per cent of all its titanium from VSMPO-Avisma, Russia’s titanium monopolist ... [and most importantly - already made titanium parts that only Russians have know-how]
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Boeing has a Russian joint venture with VSMPO and plans to buy $18bn in Russian titanium in the next decade ... Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which the company produces at a rate of 12 a month, uses 56 different titanium parts produced in Russia.
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Lawmakers are also exploring banning US-Russian co-operation in the rocket engine sector. The move appears aimed at banning the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, from acquiring the Russian-made RD-180 engines the US Air Force uses to launch the Atlas 5 rocket.
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The bill also includes a proposal to allow Russian companies to ignore selected US intellectual property rights, essentially legalising pirating of copyrighted products.
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