PARIS, March 2 (EIRNS)—France’s Finance Minister Bruno LeMaire, in an interview with France Info that he posted yesterday on his Twitter account, unleashed a tirade insisting on a full economic war against Russia. “Yes, the sanctions are effective. They are even frighteningly effective. And I do not want to leave any ambiguity about the European determination on this issue. We are going to wage an all-out financial and economic war against Russia.”
To a journalist’s question as to whether he was against Russia or against Vladimir Putin, Le Maire reaffirmed: “Against Russia, against Vladimir Putin, against his government. But the Russian people will also pay the consequences. Let’s be clear. We want to target the heart of the Russian system, we target Vladimir Putin, we target the oligarchs, but we also target the entire Russian economy.”
He went on to describe his war strategy. “We are going to prepare a set of sanctions which are currently being examined…. They have to strike quickly, they have to strike hard. And we are already seeing the effects: The ruble has already collapsed by 30%; Russian foreign exchange reserves are melting like snow in the Sun and Vladimir Putin’s famous warchest is already reduced to almost nothing. We see the collapse of the markets, the increase of inflation, we will see the queues of Russians looking for cash in the banks. And then the central bank had no choice but to increase interest rates by 10%, up to 20%, which means that companies will not be able to borrow except at very high interest rates to invest and develop the economy. So we will cause the collapse of the Russian economy.”
