(Original title: Putin: Russia will seek trading partners around the world to ease pressure from Western sanctions)
Financial Associated Press News December 16 (Edited by Niu Zhanlin)Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would seek partners in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and other places and expand trade cooperation with new partners to ease pressure from Western sanctions.
Putin said at the meeting of Russia’s Strategic Development and National Project Committee on Thursday, “We will look for other partners with more promising cooperation in the rapidly developing regions of the world economy, such as Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and other regions, so as to frustrate Western efforts to isolate Russia economically. We will redirect Russian energy supplies to the markets of friendly countries.”
Putin said we will remove logistical and financial restrictions and let me remind everyone that by imposing sanctions, Western countries are trying to push Russia to the edge of the world. But we will never go down the road of self-isolation, on the contrary, we are expanding our cooperation with all interested countries.
Due to the bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline and measures such as price caps introduced by Western countries, Russia’s energy exports have recently started to decline sharply.
However, Putin presented his own countermeasures, saying that facing Asia, Russia will develop a port system and a pipeline transportation system, and plans to expand its natural gas exports to the east to 88 billion cubic meters by 2030. He also reiterated plans to build a new “gas hub” in Turkey.
Putin believes that the export of natural gas to Asia is an important measure to reduce the pressure of Western sanctions. The implementation of projects such as the Kovik Gold Gas Field, the Power of Siberia 2 and the Far East Route can increase exports of natural gas to East Asia to 48 bcm by 2025. Expand to 88 bcm by 2030.
Putin said: “The forecast at the end of the year will be a drop in GDP, it will drop, and I said it publicly, by around 2.5%. I said some time ago that it will drop by 2.9%, but the le latest forecasts show that the drop will be even greater: less, 2.5%”.
Putin stressed that the West’s plan to destroy the Russian economy has not materialized. He said that the coordinated cooperation of the national government, the Central Bank of Russia and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation has stabilized the situation.
Putin said: “As we all know, the West has launched unprecedented sanctions against Russia. Its aim is basically to destroy our economy in the short term, by plundering our foreign exchange reserves to bring down the national currency – the ruble and trigger devastating inflation.”
Putin reiterated that Western economies are suffering the consequences: sanctions against Russia have led to energy crises in these countries and a sharp increase in prices.
