On March 16, President Putin gave a speech to open a meeting on economic support for Russia’s regions under the conditions of economic warfare now facing that nation. He opened by recapitulating the reasons for Russia’s military operation in Ukraine: the assaults on the people of the Donbass, the refusal by Kiev to move forward on the Minsk measures, Ukraine’s expressed desires to join NATO and to obtain nuclear weapons, and the general threat to Russia’s security needs. He explained that a military operation that extended no further than Donetsk and Lugansk would simply have moved the conflict zone further west: “A new frontline would have been extended around Donbass and its borders, and shelling and provocations would have continued. In other words, this armed conflict would have continued indefinitely.”
Russia has stated the conditions for peace, but “Kiev’s Western patrons are just pushing them to continue the bloodshed. They incessantly supply Kiev with weapons and intelligence, as well as other types of assistance, including military advisors and mercenaries.”
“They are using economic, financial, trade and other sanctions against Russia as weapons,” he explained, “but these sanctions have backfired in Europe and in the United States where prices of gasoline, energy and food have shot up, and jobs in the industries associated with the Russian market have been cut.”
But these are not the driving causes of “the problems faced by millions of people in the West,” which, Putin explained, “are the result of many years of actions by the ruling elite of your respective countries, their mistakes, and short-sighted policies and ambitions. This elite is not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens in Western countries.”
The sanctions have been a major blow against the global economy and global trade, which have suffered, as has “trust in the US dollar as the main reserve currency.”
