‘Unprecedented’ sanctions against Russia ‘failed’ and caused harm to those who created them, says Putin

Sputnik – The West’s attempt to collapse the banking system and create product shortages in Russia through sanctions has failed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

Not to mention the deterioration in the material quality of life of European citizens, the Russian president told a meeting.

Everything was calculated “to rapidly weaken the financial and economic situation in our country, and provoke panic in the markets, collapse of the banking system and large-scale shortages of goods in stores. But it is safe to say that such a policy towards Russia has failed”, Putin said at a meeting on socio-economic issues.

The Russian president stressed that “the economic blitzkrieg strategy has failed”.

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“Furthermore, the sanctions were not without costs for the initiators themselves, I am referring to the increase in inflation and unemployment, the deterioration of economic dynamics in the US and European countries, the decline in the standard of living of Europeans and the devaluation of their savings. Russia, as I said, resisted this unprecedented pressure. The situation is stabilizing,” Putin noted.

The Russian leader called on the government to continue to expand its program of emergency measures to deal with Western pressure, including accelerating the transition to foreign trade in rubles and the currencies of Russia’s trading partners.

“The restrictions imposed on Russia by hostile countries have undoubtedly affected the possibilities of our business, complicated the logistics of delivery in export and import, and created obstacles to payment. It is necessary to help entrepreneurs to solve these problems, especially by accelerating transition from foreign trade to processing payments in rubles and in national currencies of countries that are trusted trading partners,” he said.

Russia managed to achieve a current account balance in the first quarter of 2022 of more than US$58 billion (about R$272 billion), this figure being “an all-time high”, Putin said.

Moscow and the EU are currently at loggerheads over payment for future gas deliveries, as Brussels rejected Moscow’s demand for ruble payments. The Kremlin says currencies like the dollar and euro have been compromised by sanctions and that Russia will not hand over gas for free.

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