The Russian prime minister said sanctions against the country by the West are unproductive.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Sochi Investment Forum, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said his country will continue its economic reorientation towards India, China and Japan, RBTH reported. Medvedev pointed out that in the last century there had been many occasions on which sanctions were introduced against Russia. “There are different opinions of the Soviet political system, but we were able to overcome the sanctions,” said Medvedev.
According to the prime minster, pressure even on relatively small countries proves to be futile, whereas the Russian economy is the sixth in the world by parity.
“We should look the truth in the eyes: Opposition with sanctions is something negative, for us and for the West. We are experiencing losses, but no one is able to predict how the sanctions will reflect on the world economy,” added Medvedev. In Medvedev’s view, the current situation is different from the 2008 crisis because during the last economic crisis all the large world economies worked together. It was precisely in that period that the G20 was created, an institution that united very different countries.
“This was the guarantee of success. We are still willing to listen to our partners on the condition that they learn to take our interests into consideration,” he said. According to the Prime Minister, European countries are still the leading investors in the Russian economy, with an investment volume of about $300 billion.
