Iran Press/ Iran News: In its latest attempt to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the European Union is to ban all imports of oil from Russia that are brought in by sea.
The EU, along with the UK and the US, has introduced a series of measures to weaken key areas of the Russian economy, such as its energy and financial sectors.
“Russian businessmen used to visit Iran to sell products while looking down on Iranian businesses. But now, in an eye-catching shift, they are looking to buy Iranian products,” Ali, an Iranian tour guide told a Financial Times reporter in Tehran.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February this year, Iranian tour guide Ali’s business has boomed. But where once he hosted Russian tourists interested in Persian art, food, and culture, now he welcomes businesspeople, FT reports from Tehran.
Following a flood of western sanctions on Russian entities, they are “very interested to know how Iranians have been living under US sanctions,” FT cites Ali said.
Following the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Western nations imposed widespread sanctions on Moscow, targeting its finances, including freezing its central bank assets to block access to foreign currency reserves.
Last month alone, Ali, an entrepreneur who does not want his full name published, brought 160 Russians, mostly businesspeople, to Tehran, up from the 40 mostly Russian tourists he brought in a typical month before the pandemic, the daily reported.
He takes them to companies around the Iranian capital and introduces them to their Tehran counterparts. With western consumer goods companies curtailing trade with Moscow, his clients were surprised and interested to see a variety of products in the Iran Market, Ali said.
“Russians are far behind Iranians in terms of connections and access to the world’s markets to western-made parts and goods,” Ali said.
The Islamic republic has endured four years of swingeing US sanctions that have in effect severed its links to the global financial system since former US President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear accord.
205
Read More:
Russia is against US-E3 actions in BoG: Putin
Biden considering easing sanctions on Iran: Russian Daily
Russia imposes personal sanctions on 61 top US officials
