Putin appeared at the economic forum in St. Petersburg. And used this stage for sharp words against the western states.
On the one hand there is the economic situation: Putin described the sanctions imposed by Europe and North America in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as an “economic blitzkrieg”, “crazy” and “thoughtless”. Their aim was to weaken the Russian economy. “It didn’t work out,” he told the entrepreneurs.
“We are normalizing the Russian economy step by step,” the Kremlin chief continues. According to Putin, the pessimistic forecasts have not come true either. “We can master any challenge,” Putin continued his speech.
However, “the economy, the markets and the principles of the global economic system” are still threatened. Many trade, production and logistics relationships are disrupted. Who is to blame? “Our partners in the West,” said Putin, “on purpose,” added the Kremlin chief. However, the punitive measures also hit the EU hard. He put the damage to Europe at $400 billion.
The fact that Russia’s gross domestic product is likely to fall by 8.5 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund’s forecast at least, that the Russian central bank is saying that economic activity is “significantly” restricted – all of this remained unmentioned by Putin. Instead, he concluded: “Just like our ancestors, we will solve every problem.”
In his argument, the Kremlin chief focused on the stability of the ruble. Indeed, the Russian currency’s exchange rate against the US dollar has recovered sharply after a sharp fall in late February and early March and is currently at its highest level in five years.
However, this is almost exclusively due to the far-reaching capital controls, which drastically restrict companies and private individuals in the exchange of their assets and for which the head of the central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, had spoken out just a day earlier.
“We feel best at home”
The fact that foreign companies are withdrawing from Russia, that the assets of Russian oligarchs on the sanctions lists are being seized is something that Putin assessed in his own way: “We feel best at home,” he told the entrepreneurs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg has been postponed after a cyber attack.
(Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
After many companies in the West lost a lot of money, there is now “great potential” in Russia, for example in infrastructure or education. Important values such as the reputation of businesses or “the inviolability of private property” are in danger – by the West. “To maintain outdated geopolitical illusions”.
The 17 percent inflation rate in Russia would be further reduced. And they are still lower than the 20 percent in the EU. How the Kremlin came up with this figure for the EU is unclear. A few hours before his speech, Eurostat published the current inflation rate for the EU for May at 8.8 percent.
Putin’s picture of the geopolitical situation is similarly peculiar: the West believes its dominance of the world is eternal. The USA felt itself to be “God’s messenger on earth,” the President raged. But Western countries are “slaves of their own errors,” punishing those who disagree economically. “Our Western colleagues still think in terms of the past century, they treat other countries like colonies,” said the Kremlin chief.
>> Read here: The current developments in the Ukraine war in the live blog
The 69-year-old claimed a leading role in shaping future global power relations for Russia, which has isolated itself in many parts of the world with its attack on Ukraine. He justified this primarily with the fact that, in his view, Russia is a powerful and strong country. According to Russia experts, power and strength are the dominant arguments in geopolitics for the Kremlin chief.
Putin spoke of the Donbass, not of the whole Ukraine
Some of his remarks sounded cynical. Putin accused the West of questioning the sovereignty of other states, citing Syria and Iran as examples. But Putin of all people has denied Ukraine’s sovereignty in speeches and, above all, with the war of aggression in the country that has been going on for three and a half months and is causing new deaths on both sides every day.
Scholz calls for EU candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova
However, the speech also reflected Moscow’s shift in military focus. After the failure of a strategy to seize the Ukrainian capital Kyiv quickly, Russia has focused on conquering the Donbass in eastern Ukraine.
Putin spoke of a “special military operation in the Donbass” and no longer “in the Ukraine”. This will be continued. The main objective of the invasion? Furthermore, the defense of “our” people in the predominantly Russian-speaking area. Western states only see this as a pretext to justify the war of aggression that has so far led to the occupation of parts of southern Ukraine far beyond the Donbass.
Anyone who looked for hints for weighing up, critically questioning or even giving in in this speech by the Kremlin chief, which had started belatedly after a hacker attack on the economic forum known as the “Russian Davos”, did so in vain.
The world as Vladimir Putin portrays it, at least in public, seems more and more like a parallel world to that perceived in Brussels, Paris and Berlin, Washington and above all in Kyiv.
More: Historic visit with vague announcements – This is how Olaf Scholz’ trip to Kyiv went