Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the power of the West is weakening as the aggressive attempt to isolate Russia through sanctions is destroying the global economy at a time when Asia is rising. He also declared that Russia will halt gas and oil supplies if price caps on Russian energy are imposed.
The United States and allies have imposed the harshest sanctions on Russia in modern history due to what Putin describes as a special military operation in Ukraine. Putin claims that the sanctions are akin to a declaration of economic war.
At the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok, Putin said that Western sanctions have replaced the COVID-19 pandemic as the main threat to the global economy.
– I am talking about the West’s sanctions frenzy, its brazen, aggressive attempts to impose behavioral models on other countries, to deprive them of their sovereignty and subordinate them to its will – said Putin.
– In an attempt to resist the flow of history, Western countries are undermining the key pillars of the global economic system built over centuries – said Putin, adding that trust in the dollar, euro, and pound is declining.
Russia sent tens of thousands of soldiers to Ukraine on February 24 to disarm its southern neighbor and root out the country of ‘dangerous nationalists’. Ukrainian forces have provided strong resistance.
The West’s attempt to economically isolate Russia, one of the world’s largest producers of natural resources, has pushed the global economy into uncharted waters with rising food and energy prices.
Additionally, the G7 group is proposing a price cap on Russian energy so that Russia would have to sell oil to its major buyers at lower prices. G7 members believe that such a cap would reduce pressure on the oil market, while at the same time Russia would no longer profit from rising oil prices that finance its military operations, reports Index.hr. However, Putin denied claims that Russia uses energy as a weapon, according to AFP.
