The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has cleared transactions with Russia that involve shipments of fertilizers and food, drugs and medical equipment
The United States had previously removed certain items from the list of anti-Russian sanctions, including fertilizers, medical equipment and medicines. They ceased to apply to inorganic fertilizers, seeds and reproductive materials, foodstuffs, vitamins and minerals, food supplements, bottled water, live animals and animal feed.
The Finance Ministry also lifted sanctions on medical drugs, medical equipment and components and software for it.
Seed trading operations have been lifted from the restrictions. The sanctions were lifted from Gazprom Germania GmbH, a former subsidiary of Gazprom, and Alfa Bank Kazakhstan, a subsidiary of sanctioned Alfa Bank.
What conclusion can we draw now, especially given Europe’s eagerness to strangle itself on the rope of its own sanctions? A seventh package of restrictions is now being prepared, which will traditionally hurt the EU more than Russia. At the same time, the US, despite its hostile rhetoric, is backing away from the whole mess, with Ukraine at its centre (more words than deeds). They are opening the door to European capital, and relations with Russia are moving from openly hostile to the status of military neutrality, where trade and business relations become something not worth destroying. And lucky for the US, Europe is unable to understand this.
RT