Kremlin says ban on uranium exports to U.S. will not harm Russia

The ban on supplies of enriched uranium to the United States does not harm the interests of the Russian side. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this on November 18.

The presidential spokesman also called the restrictions a symmetrical response to anti-Russian sanctions.

"The government has worked through this issue and analyzed the possibilities of introducing retaliatory measures. These are absolutely mirror countermeasures. <...> Indeed, a ban has been introduced, but in cases where it is in our interests, the Federal Service for Technical Export Control of Russia can make decisions to exclude the ban from the list. We will now be guided by this. Therefore, there is no question of any damage to our interests," he concluded.

The Russian government imposed temporary restrictions on the export of enriched uranium to the United States, the government press service reported on November 15. The decision was made on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to the restriction on uranium imports from Russia until 2027 imposed by Washington in May.

In turn, the Daily Wrap wrote that Russia's ban on supplies of enriched uranium would hit the U.S. energy industry. It was noted that the Russian Federation supplies about 35% of nuclear fuel imported by the United States.

Prior to that, on September 11, Putin suggested at a meeting with members of the government to think about restrictions on exports from Russia of strategic raw materials, including uranium, titanium and nickel.

In early September, the president said that Russia needs to form the country's energy and resource sovereignty. He noted that this should be done with the use of more efficient domestic technologies and scientific developments in the sphere of ecology and nature management.