The Russian parliament is set to commission legal research into sanctions imposed on the country by western nations, and is seeking proposals regarding the development of strategies to counter them.

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The request has been published on the government website for commercial tenders, along with details that reveal the successful bidder will be paid up to 3 million roubles ($50,800) for the job. The deadline for submitting tenders is the end of this year.

“Russia is one of the biggest sovereign powers with a great reserve of energy resources. In such conditions, it is of vital importance for Russia to effectively defend its interests in the international arena, to address the consequences of anti-Russian sanctions and to give an adequate answer to them,” reads an explanatory note.

The document adds that the results of the research will be used for the development of a well-founded position in relation to the sanctions, based on international law. It will also test the legality of unilateral measures against Russia.

Foreign states have imposed sanctions against Russian officials and companies on a large number of occasions. These began in 1998, when 10 Russian enterprises were blacklisted over their alleged participation in the Iranian nuclear program. The most-recent instance occurred earlier this year, when the US slapped sanctions on Russia, North Korea and Iran.

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The standoff between Russia and western nations intensified in 2014, after Crimea’s accession to the Russian Federation, when the US, EU and some of their allies introduced sanctions against Russian citizens and companies. Russia responded by placing an embargo on food imports, blacklisting certain US officials, and other similar measures.

On Wednesday, Senator Viktor Bondarev, head of the Upper House Committee for Defense and Security, told reporters that he considered the fresh restrictions by the US to be an attempt to oust Russia from European and international arms markets.

“10 days ago, Americans ‘awarded’ us with an additional batch of ‘special economic measures,’ as they call them, targeting our defense industry. In reality, these sanctions are just another attempt to oust Russia from the corresponding sector of the European market with a view to similar actions on a global scale,” Bondarev said in an interview with RIA Novosti, referring to the US move as “the usual unfair competition.”