Vladimir Putin said on Friday that his country had withstood the worst sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe, as Russia’s president had promised to achieve the targets of his military aggression on Ukraine.
Putin told a business conference in St. Petersburg that “dark predictions about the future of the Russian economy did not come true” and that sanctions had further affected European companies, a statement that is not supported by published estimates. Bye now.
“The economic lightning war. . . he never had a chance of success, “he said.” The weapon of sanctions is a double-edged sword. . . European countries hit their own economy hard on their own. ”
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February, Western countries have imposed sanctions that have frozen $ 300 billion in Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, cut off companies from global markets, and disrupted supply chains. .
Putin was adamant that Russia would achieve its military goals, indicating that it could annex occupied territories or separatist areas supported by Moscow in the eastern Donbas region. “We will defend the interests of the people for the good of which our boys fight, are wounded and die,” Putin said. “It simply came to our notice then. Otherwise, what are the victims for? “
The Moscow-backed Donbas separatist authorities, whose leaders attended the conference, and officials the Kremlin has appointed to lead areas of southern Ukraine have said they want to be part of Russia. Putin said Russia would “respect any choice they make.” He stressed that he saw the whole of the former Soviet Union as a “historic Russia.”
The EU has lost its political sovereignty. Their elites dance to the tune of another person, harming their own population.
While claiming that the United States had provoked war by turning Ukraine into an “anti-Russian stronghold,” Putin said Moscow had no objection to Kyiv’s attempts to join the EU because it was not an alliance. military. The European Commission on Friday called for Ukraine to be an official candidate to join the bloc.
Putin’s comments that Russia has faced a smaller turnaround than European economies contradict the forecasts of international organizations.
Eurostat, the commission’s statistics office, will not publish second-quarter growth figures, which will cover most of the post-invasion period in Russia, until the end of July.
But rising oil and gas prices have cut estimates sharply. The OECD has recently cut its eurozone expansion forecast this year from 4.3% in December to 2.6% and from 2.5% to 1.6% by 2023.
For Russia, the sales were much sharper. Its economy is expected to shrink 10 percent this year, according to the OECD, down from the 1.9 percent growth forecast in December. The projection for 2023 fell from 1.6% growth to a contraction of 4.1%.
Putin said Russia had controlled inflation to 17.6% and was presumed to be below the levels of some European countries. This is only true for Estonia and Lithuania, where energy prices have skyrocketed after the Baltics moved to cut off Russia’s energy supply once the war began. The euro area average is 8.1%, less than half the Russian rate.
Western central banks have blamed the conflict for exacerbating inflationary pressures, leading to a sharp rise in the cost of energy and food. Putin rejected the claim, saying the West was using the conflict as a “lifeline to blame Russia for its own mistakes.” Western countries were paying the price for years of very weak monetary policy and high levels of public debt, he said.
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He accused the EU, historically Russia’s largest trading partner, of succumbing to US pressure. “The EU has lost its political sovereignty. Their elites dance to the tune of another person, harming their own population. The real interests of Europeans and European companies are completely ignored and erased, “Putin said.
While Putin downplayed the economic damage caused by the sanctions, Russian economic officials in attendance were visibly upset. Herman Gref, chief executive of state-owned lender Sberbank and a longtime Putin confidant, said the export-driven economic model was now “poison” because it made the ruble too strong against the dollar.
Putin also denied Western allegations that Russia had aggravated global food shortages by blocking Ukrainian Black Sea ports and impeding its grain exports.
Instead, he said the sanctions had restricted Russia’s grain exports. “Hunger in the poorest countries will be in the consciousness of the US administration and the Eurocrats,” Putin said.
The sanctions, which have wiped out millions of dollars of wealth from wealthy Russians, had claimed their warnings that Russian oligarchs and executives were taking too many risks by taking assets in the West. “True success is only possible when you link your future and that of your children to your homeland,” he said.