Russia’s economy is very fair in the face of the sanctions strike, despite all the difficulties, Russian President Vladimir Putin said when he received his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, in Sochi on Monday.
According to Putin, all major macroeconomic indicators prove this, and the Russian government’s efforts also play a major role in this. In response to accusations in Western countries that he was responsible for their economic woes, the president, with the intention of irony, remarked that he would “talk seriously” with himself.
Among other things, he pointed out that last year’s nearly $ 38.5 billion in Russian-Belarusian trade turnover reached record levels. He added that the changeover in foreign trade to settle in national currencies with Belarus and other countries has strengthened the ruble.
Lukashenko “thanked” the West for giving a boost to the economic development and integration of Russia and Belarus.
The Belarusian leader warned that Poland would be ready to annex Western Ukraine under the pretext of peacekeeping.
He also believed that Kyiv would seek the help of Moscow and Minsk to prevent parts from being taken away from Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press on Monday that Russia was not blocking the export of Ukrainian grain through Poland because, as he said, no one was preventing the railway trains that had brought weapons from transporting grain back.
“We are not the source of the problems that lead to the threat of famine,” he said, blaming Russia for sanctions on the situation, among other things.
As he said, it is not Russia that has blocked Ukrainian ports, and it is the deployment of Ukrainian mines that is endangering waterways. According to Peskov, “special measures” are needed to restore shipping.
Referring to press reports, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nenyenyja said Ukrainian grain was transported both by rail and by Danube barges. He added that Moscow suspects the crop will eventually be moored in European granaries instead of the starving South.
Opening picture: MTI / AP / Pool / Sputnik / Ramil Sitdikov
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