Russia operation in Ukraine successful, going according to plan: Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin assures his people that the special military operation in Ukraine is going according to plan, and adds that the repercussions of the operation would be dealt with.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin
Moscow's ongoing military operation in Ukraine is successful and going according to plan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
"The operation is developing successfully, in strict accordance with pre-approved plans," Putin told a meeting on measures to support the regions. The mission will be "completed," he added.
Putin stressed that Russian forces being near the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, does not mean Russia aims to occupy the country.
Russia had launched a special military operation for several reasons, such as NATO's eastward expansion, the Ukrainian shelling of Donbass, and the killing of the people of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, in addition to Moscow wanting to "denazify" and demilitarize Ukraine.
Russia may face increased unemployment, inflation, Moscow aims to tackle problems
New realities require structural changes in the Russian economy, President Putin underlined, noting that they would lead to an increase in inflation and unemployment.
The goal of the authorities is to minimize the adverse effects of the measures Moscow will take to restructure its economy, Putin assured.
"Without doubt, in the new realities, deep structural changes in our economy will be required. I will not hide it. They will not be easy; they will lead to a temporary increase in inflation and unemployment. In this situation, our task is to minimize such risks," Putin told a government meeting.
The "new realities" in question are those imposed by the West on Russia due to the wave of sanctions they bombarded the country with following Moscow's aforementioned military operation in Ukraine.
US, EU defaulted on obligations to Russia
Washington and Brussels have effectively defaulted on their obligations to Moscow by freezing Russia's foreign exchange reserves, President Vladimir Putin revealed.
"Illegitimate actions to freeze part of the Bank of Russia's foreign exchange reserves draw a line under the reliability of the so-called first-class assets. In fact, both the US and the EU have declared a real default on their obligations to Russia," Putin said.
Following up on the West's freezing of Russian reserves, Putin highlighted that the financial reserves of a state could simply be stolen.
Earlier, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Western countries had frozen about half, or about $300 billion, of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves.
"Now everyone knows that financial reserves can simply be stolen. Seeing this, many countries can start in the near future - I am sure this will happen - to convert their paper, digital savings into real reserves in the form of commodities, land, food, gold, other real objects, which will only increase the deficit in these markets," Putin told the government meeting, highlighting that the West made a mistake by defaulting on their obligations.
The economic sanctions on Russia have had their fair share of repercussions on the West, especially the United States, with US oil reaching all-time high prices after President Joe Biden announced that his country was banning the import of Russian oil, liquified natural gas, and coal.
The sanctions did not only include the Russian energy sector, for the West also barred Russia from the SWIFT system and imposed sanctions on Russian banks and many other sectors.
