On Saturday, Russian State Duma Speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, said the United States, "with its own hands," pushed countries not participating in "sanctions wars" to form a new "Big Eight" - or a G8 - group with Russia. 

West-led sanctions have sunken the world into unprecedented rates of inflation and shortages, in addition to energy crises in Europe, as a result of bans on Russian oil. The US, along with NATO countries, have been engaging in a form of 'cancel culture' against countries that have either not condemned Russia, or have not joined the sanctions and political and economic isolation of Russia. 

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The sanctions, however, as many experts have predicted, have not only backfired, but have also improved Russian cooperation with China and many other strong economies around the world. 

Volodin, in a post on Telegram, posted a table with IMF data with indices of purchasing power parity by country, calling the table the "new G8", in addition to countries forming the current G7 after the suspension of Russia from the bloc - the G8, in 2014, turned into the G7. 

“The group of eight countries not participating in the sanctions wars – China, India, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Iran, Turkey – in terms of GDP at PPP is 24.4% ahead of the old group,” Volodin wrote. On the other hand, the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Canada continue “to crack under the weight of sanctions imposed against Russia.”

“The rupture of existing economic relations by Washington and its allies has led to the formation of new points of growth in the world,” Volodin claimed.

The US, despite serious economic difficulties, continues "doing everything to solve their problems at the expense of others," remarking that the US' constant creation of tension will lead the US into eventually losing world domination. 

“The United States created the conditions with its own hands for countries wishing to build an equal dialogue and mutually beneficial relations to actually form a ‘new Big Eight’ together with Russia,” he said.

Russian official: Russia may benefit from EU oil sanctions

Last Saturday, Russia's Lower House Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said that Russia's economy may benefit from the EU oil embargo, which was recently imposed wholly on Russian oil as part of the 6th European package of sanctions. In return, EU members will be paying $268 billion per year for rising energy prices, throwing the old continent into a crisis. 

"Russia's possible losses caused by a ban on oil exports to Europe, according to experts, could amount to $22 billion a year. But due to surging energy prices, prompted by the sanctions and redirection of Russian oil markets to Asia, the costs can be fully compensated, with a possible profit for our economy," Volodin said on Telegram.

He revealed that Europe will be paying over €250 billion ($268 billion) per year, other than the additional costs of enterprises' transition to new oil brands. 

"Washington is doing everything so that the main burden from the implementation of sanctions falls on European countries. It is deliberately weakening the EU economies to make them even more dependent on the US, seeking to govern countries that previously strived for greater independence. Now these states can hardly even think about it," Volodin added.