MOSCOW, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. ban on exporting high-tech electronic equipment to Russia will not impact related Russian industries critically as Moscow is boosting its domestic industry and will also tap Southeast Asia, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said Tuesday.
"The ban on exporting dual-purpose electronic devices and components to Russia will undoubtedly affect certain high-tech sectors, including defense, but not critically," Manturov was cited by TASS news agency as saying.
Russia will replace the sanctioned American components with domestically produced ones or import them from Southeast Asia, he added.
The minister said Russia has already prepared a package of countermeasures to offset the impact of the U.S. action.
"We have been preparing for this situation for quite a time. More than 1,500 types of basic electronic components have been developed within various federal programs in the past six years," he said.
By 2020, Russia will create another 2,000 types of high-tech basic electronic components, which can replace more than 9,000 foreign-made components, Manturov said.
The United States and Russia have been levying sanctions against each other as bilateral relations continue to worsen.
Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department said Washington would impose new sanctions on Russia around Aug. 22 over the alleged poison gas attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British city of Salisbury in March.
