Society's Child
"These [sanctions] affected about a quarter of German companies conducting activities abroad," Treier stated, as quoted by Rheinische Post.
The most affected are the companies that have business interactions with both Russia and the United States, since their activities now have to undergo numerous checks because of the sanctions, he added.
"Business contacts of German companies conducting activities in Russia and the United States. They have to go through checks to determine whether they comply with various sanctions of the United States and European Union," Treier said.
The United States and the European Union have already imposed packages of targeted sanctions against dozens of Russian officials and companies in response to the country's reunification with Crimea and Moscow's position toward the situation in Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stated that the language of sanctions is counterproductive to all parties and could have a boomerang effect on European economies.

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and members of a forensic team inspect a refrigerator wagon, containing the remains of victims from the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, at a railway station in the eastern Ukrainian town of Torez July 21, 2014.
Three members of the Dutch Disaster Victims Identification team visited the city of Torez where some of the bodies of those that died in the Malaysian plane crash have been loaded on to a refrigerated train. The destination of the train, which is being guarded by rebel fighters from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, remains unknown.
So far 272 out of 298 bodies have been recovered at the site of the Malaysian Boeing crash, 251 are currently in refrigerated train cars at Torez Station.
The head of the Dutch team, Peter van Vliet, inspected the bodies that were being stored in rail cars.
"The storage of the bodies is of good quality," van Vliet told Reuters, as his team went through the train carriages in masks and rubber gloves checking the bodies. He added that they had been told the bodies would be taken to a place where they would be identified and repatriated.
The team will visit the crash site later on Monday in an attempt to discern the possible causes behind the tragedy.
Maxim Maravalle, last name Kichigin by birth, died on the night of July 17 in Pescara, Italy, according to a statement on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website. Several Russian media sources have reported that he was strangled.
"The crime was committed by the boy's adopted father - Massimo Maravalle, who was arrested by the police. Pescara's Prosecutor General has opened a criminal case against [him]," the statement said, citing information from the Italian government.

Edward Snowden poses for a photo during an interview at an undisclosed location in December 2013 in Moscow, Russia.
Speaking via remote Google Hangouts video feed from Russia, Snowden addressed his comments to an audience at this weekend's Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York.
The legislation was approved by the Congress earlier this month, with Bolivia's Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera signing it into law on Thursday. The signature - which didn't come from President Evo Morales due to his absence from the country - officially lowers the age that children can legally work from 14 to 10.
Under the new legislation, children above the age of 10 will be allowed to become self-employed workers as long as they attend school and have permission from their parents. Those over 12 years old will be permitted to take on contract work, also on terms of parental consent and compulsory school attendance.
While the world is still recovering from the shock of the Malaysia Airlines plane crash, a message on WSJ's Facebook page posted on Sunday morning came as yet even a worse stress for a few readers.
The fake "breaking news" report suggested that the American president's plane went down in Russia.
"US Air Force One crash feared as air traffic controller loses contact with pilot over Russian air space," read one of the posts on WSJ's page.

Pro-Palestinian protesters shout slogans and hold flags during a demonstration against Israel's military action in the Gaza strip, in Vienna July 20, 2014.
'Free, free, free Palestine' and 'Let Gaza Live', the protesters changed while wielding a variety of posters and flags.
"We are not against the Jewish people. the Jewish people should feel free and live free like everybody. We are against the Zionists, actually, who are supported from this big, big mafia and lobby around the world," Abderrahmen Laarouchi told Ruptly.
The protesters made their way to the historic Hofburg Palace, which is now the official residence of the country's president. The demonstrators were playing drums and some were carrying bloody sheets wrapped like a dead body or dolls, signs saying "Made in Israel".
Wake up World!!! #GlobalSolidarityWithGaza in #Vienna#Austria#gaza#Palestine gazaglobal@gmail.com pic.twitter.com/D5YgqWpk8a
- Solidarity Gaza (@GazaGlobal) July 17, 2014

Protesters display placards and banners as they take part in demonstration against Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in central London on July 19, 2014 against Gaza strikes.
David Cameron's office is located about 5km (3 miles) from the embassy. While the march itself was peaceful, several key roads downtown were closed.
The death toll from the operation launched by Israel, including the ground offensive of two days ago, has now reached 400 people by Palestinian health ministry's accounts, the overwhelming majority of them civilians.
Similar to other major cities across the world, demonstrators held signs and banners asking the Jewish State to "Stop the bombing, free Palestine", "Stop Israeli terror," and so on. Some called it the "apartheid" state, according to the AP.
At least three refrigerated train carriages with bodies of those killed in the MH17 plane crash have departed from the town of Torez, near the site of the crash, to the town of Ilovaysk and are on their way to Donetsk.
Alternative reports suggest the train is still in Torez and the decision on where it will go depends on what authorities in Kiev say.
"So far, I do not know where they plan to take them," Sergey Kavtaradze, an official representative of the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) told the Russian News Service.
The carriages at the Torez station were reportedly examined by the OSCE observers, who said there were 196 bodies inside.
That has not been confirmed by Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine, who said his team had actually seen body bags in the train carriages but were unable to count them, Reuters reports.
The bodies were lying in the heat for several days and have begun to decompose. By now special equipment is needed to deal with them.
Comment: The militia and residents were explicitly told not to move the bodies, even if they had fallen into their homes. It's good to see the militia has taken some initiative in this regard.
Comment: You can watch Boroday's press conference here (click CC for English captions):
Supporters of the change.org online appeal are well on their way to hitting the 500,000 benchmark, having nearly doubled the number of signatures in the last 24 hours.
Often dubbed 'the world's saddest animal,' Arturo lives in a cramped cage with little room to walk in Argentina's Mendoza Zoo. Temperatures sometimes hit 104F (40C), and the 29-year-old polar bear, clearly not designed for such a climate, only has a 20-inch-deep pool to keep him cool.
To make matters worse, Arturo's long-time friend Pelusa died two years ago. Animal rights campaigners say Arturo has exhibited signs of depression since the death, fearing the abnormal behavior mirrors that of 'Pelusa the Purple Polar Bear' before she passed away.












Comment: Child labor is actually pervasive in developing countries, thanks to economic imperialism aka globalization practiced by the US. Rather than condemning the legislation, perhaps we should look at facts on the ground and ask what makes it necessary in the first place because such a situation is fast becoming a reality in Western countries.