At a joint press conference at Vostochny with visiting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the economic super-sanctions being wielded against Russia are having some effect on its economy, which are under control, but the impact on poorer countries dependent on Russian and Belarusian fertilizer and food exports will be devastating. (http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68182)
“The blitzkrieg that our ill-wishers hoped to achieve was unsuccessful, of course,” Putin stated. “As it turns out, the Russian economy and its financial system are standing quite firmly on their feet,” he said, but given the fact that the sanctions will continue and intensify, Russia has to prepare to “prioritize certain things.”
He went on to warn of the impact on less protected parts of the world: “If our Western partners change nothing here, the volume of Russian and Belarusian mineral fertilizers will shrink in the world market. But our industry will find where to send all this, I assure you. Many countries that we have not classified as unfriendly are eager to get Russian and Belarusian fertilizers. There is no productive agriculture without them. And if agriculture is unable to deliver productively, there will not be enough food in the world, in the world market.
