Western nations have failed in their attempts to destabilize the Russian economy with sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a government meeting on economic issues on Monday.
“The situation is stabilizing, the ruble exchange rate has returned to the levels of the first half of February and is supported by a strong balance of payments… Foreign cash is returning to the country’s banking system, and the volume of deposits by citizens is growing. As for the consumer market, after a short rush to buy a number of goods… retail demand has returned to normal. Commodity stocks in retail chains are recovering,” Putin said.
Overall, he noted that sanctions have failed to break the country’s economy.
“The goal [of sanctions] was to quickly undermine the financial and economic situation in our country, provoke a panic in the markets, trigger a collapse of the banking system and a large-scale shortage of goods in stores. But this policy has failed – the economic blitzkrieg has run aground,” the Russian president stated.