Russia raps U.S. sanctions against three companies as groundless

The U.S. sanctions against three Russian companies are ungrounded, Russian Vice Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Saturday.

"I bindingly confirm that the three Russian companies did not violate any of international norms, rules and Russia's obligations in the area of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missile nonproliferation," Ivanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Ivanov's statement came in response to a two-year sanction slapped earlier this week by the Bush administration on some Russian export companies, which are accused of exporting weapons to Syria, Iran and Venezuela.

First of all, sanctions against the Russian companies "have nothing to do with the WMD or missile nonproliferation regimes," the minister said.

"Secondly, sanctions were imposed on the basis of the U.S. legislation. It is obvious for me that the U.S. government has tried many times to extrapolate its legislation to norms of the international law," he said.

The Washington Times reported on Friday, citing high-ranking officials from the Bush administration, that the companies in question are Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport, the Kolomna Design Bureau and the Tula Design Bureau of Instrument Building.