Russia can work with foreign suppliers only under conditions of "deep" localization - Deputy Minister

MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) - Russia may cooperate with foreign suppliers, but only under conditions of "deep" localization of production in Russia, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Vasily Shpak told journalists on the sidelines of the InfoSpace forum.

"We are ready to cooperate with everyone. But of course, this cooperation is limited by a number of conditions, so that there are no facts like what's happened now with Cisco, when those who already bought Cisco equipment and have it on their networks will now face the problem of no spare parts. How do you repair, service, how do you provide services?" the deputy minister said, answering the question as to whether it is planned to introduce any restrictions for suppliers who want to return to Russia.

"Therefore, we are interested in working with any manufacturers who want to cooperate with us on the territory of our country, but only under conditions of deep localization - with full organization of production here, localization of components, the transfer of source codes, intellectual rights to us, so that we are within the country, regardless of any political or other life situations, so that we have the opportunity to support those consumers who purchase these products," the deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

In January, U.S. company Cisco physically destroyed all its stocks, IT equipment and fixed assets in Russia with a value of 1.86 billion rubles due to the termination of sales in the country, the suspension of licenses and the impossibility of re-export, the Russian structure of the manufacturer said in its report.

Commenting on this, Shpak said that this shows "it is impossible to deal with foreign suppliers. They are indifferent to their consumers who have been investing all this time, buying equipment and developing their businesses. Therefore, every time, before you decide to buy a foreign product, you should measure 10 times and only then make the decision based on how confident you are that you are doing the right thing," the deputy minister said.