Russia Expects West To Launch New Sanctions on Whatever Pretext

Feb. 19, 2022 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed a press conference following talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Feb. 18. “You are talking about sanctions. They will be imposed in any event. Whether there is some excuse today, for instance, linked with the events in Ukraine, or there is no excuse—one will be found because the goal is different. The goal is to impede the development, in this case, of Russia and Belarus. Those who pursue this objective will always come up with an excuse to introduce various restrictions. I will repeat that these restrictions are illegitimate. They amount to unfair competition,” Putin said. He further argued that sanctions pressure “is absolutely illegitimate.”

He remarked with regret that, “Unfortunately, we have lived in this paradigm for many, many years because the powers that be believe they run the show and always interpret everything in their own favor, ignoring the interests of others. The only way out is to grow stronger from within, primarily in the economy.”

 When asked who can help Russia and Belarus counter the sanctions, Putin responded

“We must help ourselves in this respect, and this is the goal of our current meeting. We primarily focused, as Mr. Lukashenko has already said, on economic issues, on issues of economic cooperation.... We talked about the entire range of problems, including the one you mentioned. I will not go into detail now, but there is always a solution.”

The Russian leader also remarked, “Many countries of the world, even US allies, are facing today’s restrictions. But they simply shut their mouth and bear it. As I said many, many years ago, nobody likes this. Nobody likes secondary sanctions or direct sanctions pressure. This boil will certainly burst eventually.”