Western Export Ban Would Cause Global Econ Crisis-Kremlin Spox

Kremlin spox Dmitri Peskov has stated that the Russian gov't is 'monitoring reports of a possible ban on exports to Russia by western countries'. TheKyodo story states that the ban could come "in an extension of the sanctions regime against Moscow for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, a Japanese government source said Friday." This comes after a Bloomberg story from 20 April that makes a similar claim, stating that "The approach being discussed by diplomatic envoys would flip the existing sanctions regime around, with all exports banned unless exempted, the people said. Under the current criteria all exports are allowed unless sanctioned."

• State-run Intefax reports Peskov stating that "“We take into account all the dangers that lie behind the thoughts of our opponents. We proceed from the fact that, in any case, the current sanctions that have been imposed against our country, and new additional steps that Brussels and Washington may be thinking about now, they will, of course, hit the world economy as well. Therefore, this can only lead to an increase in the trend towards a global economic crisis."