Trade Turnover Between Russia, US Up by 29%

The turnover of foreign trade between Russia and the United States between January and April reached $6.976 billion, amounting to an increase of 29 percent year-over-year, the Russian Federal Customs Service (FCS) said on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Exports from Russia to the United States amounted to $3.159 billion, marking an increase of 30.4 percent, while imports to Russia from the United States amounted to $3.817 billion, up by 27.9 percent.

The US share in the total turnover of Russian foreign trade for the indicated period increased to 4.1 percent from 4 percent last year.

In 2016, the trade turnover amounted to a total of $20.276 billion, a 3-percent drop from 2015, according to the agency's data.

Since March 2014, the US has adopted several rounds of sanctions against individuals and business companies in Russia in the wake of Crimea's reunification with Russia and the Ukraine crisis.

On Wednesday, the US Senate voted in favor of new sanctions against Russia over its alleged interference in the US presidential election in 2016. Commenting on the US senators' initiative, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his annual Q&A session on Thursday that the new sanctions seemed to have come out of nowhere while Russia repeatedly denied its involvement in the US internal affairs.