Anyone who wants to intervene from outside and create a strategic threat that is unacceptable to Russia must know that the answer will be “quick, quick”. That’s what Putin said on Wednesday in St. Petersburg.
“We have all the tools for this,” said the Kremlin chief at a meeting of top officials. “And we won’t brag. We’ll use them when necessary. And I want everyone to know that.” The necessary decisions have already been made. The West wants to split Russia into different parts, Putin said. In addition, the West has pushed Ukraine into a conflict with Russia.
The “special military operation” in Ukraine and Donbass, as he called the war, will achieve all of its stated goals, he stressed. The Kremlin chief had also put the country’s nuclear weapons on increased alert as a warning to NATO.
Despite gloomy forecasts: sanctions have failed
At the same time, Putin declared the Western attempt to choke off the Russian economy with sanctions as a failure. The ruble, the banking system, the transport sector and the economy in general have withstood Western sanctions, Putin claimed.
However, according to a document viewed by Reuters, the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Moscow expects Russia’s economic power to decline by 8.8 percent this year. Under less favorable conditions, the ministry does not rule out a 12.4 percent decline in gross domestic product.
Source: Nachrichten
