Ralph Niemeyer, head of the German Council for the Constitution and Sovereignty, described the European Union's sanctions against Russia as a "state coup" against the European industry.

Speaking to Sputnik, Niemeyer said that these sanctions harm all EU member states that continue to import oil from Russia stressing "This is madness. It is like a state coup against our own industry. It is inexplicable. We still buy Russian [oil] and import it via India."

Niemeyer then underscored that the effects of these sanctions have not impacted Russia on a political level, explaining that "all these sanctions have only made life harder but had no political effect on Russia."

Similarly, last month, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the European Union should reassess its sanctions on Russia, as they continue to drive up energy costs and damage the bloc's economic competitiveness.

"Energy prices need to be lowered by all means. This means that sanctions need to be reconsidered because, under the current sanctions policy, energy prices will not go lower," Orban said during an interview on the Hungarian public radio.

Orban remarked that US companies pay only a quarter of what their European counterparts do for gas and electricity, a disparity that cannot be addressed through other measures.

It is worth noting that Hungary has long been at odds with the EU over its approach to the war in Ukraine and its sanctions policy towards Moscow.

Russia developing, economy growing despite sanctions, Putin says

Russia is prospering and its economy is expanding despite extraordinary sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday, adding that blackmail and external meddling efforts would never succeed.

"Russia is developing, the economy is growing, and all this amid the unprecedented sanctions in the full sense of this word, in the literal sense of this word, in the world history, gross interference and pressure from the ruling elites of some states," Putin said, adding that "no blackmail and external attempts to interfere with us will ever result in anything."

He expressed that the fight against Russia's enemies is not limited to the battlefield but also entails all other areas of public life, such as culture, education, and the economy.

"[The battlefield] occurs not only along the front line. Indeed, this global and decisive confrontation affects all aspects of our lives, including culture, education, worldviews, the economy, and technology," he detailed.

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