MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The United States' newest batch of sanctions on Russia will have a larger negative impact on German businesses than previous rounds of restrictions, Matthias Schepp, the chairman of the Board of the Russian-German Chamber of Foreign Trade (AHK Russland) said Monday.
"Further sanctions will not contribute to stability and peace in Europe and the world, but will rather exacerbate the situation," Schepp said in a statement published on the chamber's official website.
"If the new sanctions are implemented as adopted by the US Senate, this will have far more serious consequences than the previous sanctions," Schepp said.
The AHK statement notes that despite the sanctions, investments made by German companies in Russia have remained high and even began to grow in recent months. Phoenix Contact, a electronics component manufacturer, launched a plant in May. On June 20, Daimler will begin the construction of its new Mercedes-Benz factory in the Moscow region and plans to invest over 250 million euros in the production site.
Germany and Austria have already criticized the United States, noting that the draft bill appeared to aim at ousting Russian gas from the European market, promoting US liquefied natural gas and securing US jobs in the gas and oil industries.
