Russia’s opponents tried to destroy it from within, but failed

Russia’s opponents tried to destroy it from within, but failed — Putin

MOSCOW: Russia’s Western opponents tried to destroy it from within, but they failed – the result of anti-Russian sanctions turned out to be the opposite of what was expected, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with members of the government.

“You and I know very well what happened from an economic point of view. Literally, in the truest sense of this word they started economic aggression against Russia. The endless number of sanctions that we faced were aimed at one thing, and you and I know this well what the goal was – to destroy Russia from within. And not only politically, but above all economically. [the sanctions were] to create problems in labor teams, cause massive unemployment in the country, lead to the closure of enterprises and entire industries. Our opponents did not succeed,” Putin said.

The President stressed that the result of anti-Russian sanctions turned out to be “exactly the opposite of what was expected.”

“Last year, Russia’s economy grew at a rate higher than the global one,” Putin noted.

He stressed that as for economic growth, Russia was ahead not only of the leading countries of the European Union, but also of all the states of the so-called “seven”. “Together we looked for appropriate answers to the most complex historical challenges and, on the whole, successfully overcame them. What is fundamentally important, we continued to solve current problems, intensively and consistently worked on the development agenda within the framework of key national goals and priorities,” he said.