The United States will no longer consider Russia a market economy, the Commerce Department in Washington has announced, thus revoking the status granted two decades ago, Reuters reports.

The U.S. Commerce Department says its analysis has found “extensive” Russian government interference in the economy that has led to price and cost distortions, with Washington officials accusing the situation of affecting a fair reflection of the prices of Russian goods imported into the United States of the states

“This decision allows the United States to apply the full range of anti-dumping laws in response to market distortions caused by the Russian government’s increased interference in its economy,” the Commerce Department said in a statement in Washington.

In 2002, the United States granted Russia market economy status, a key step toward Vladimir Putin’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) a decade later.

Last year, the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia said that Moscow would be able to challenge any decision by Washington to revoke its status as a market economy in the WTO.

But Russia’s relations with the West deteriorated sharply after the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, when the US and many other countries imposed historic sanctions aimed at isolating the Russian economy and cutting off sources of funding for Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

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