Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has accused the US and its allies of using economic sanctions as a weapon against competitors, adding that the rules regulating international trade were not in step with a rapidly-changing reality. “Despite the booming development of electronic commerce and digital technologies, the regulation in the sphere of international trade still exists in its old framework, in the 40-year-old paradigm, and raw materials markets remain unstable”, Medvedev said at the ASEAN-2017 summit. “Methods of the so-called protectionism are being used more frequently and economic sanctions become just a competition tool”, the Russian PM noted. He also stated that the trade turnover between Russia and ASEAN nations had the potential for a many-fold increase, and noted that the sides were not using all possible opportunities to achieve this.
