Vladimir Putin took part in the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum, the theme of this year’s event is “Towards a multipolar world.” РИА Новости reported
At the beginning of his speech, Putin stated that other global challenges had replaced the coronavirus epidemic.
“I mean the sanctions fever of the West, its undisguised, aggressive attempts to impose behavior patterns on other countries, deprive them of their sovereignty and subordinate them to their will,” the head of state stressed.
He noted that this has led to a decrease in confidence in the dollar, euro and pound sterling, and even US allies are reducing their reserves in American currency.
The head of state stressed that the catalyst for these processes was the reduction of Washington’s influence on processes in the global economy and politics.
Putin noted that the Istanbul food deal concluded in the summer does not achieve its stated goals – almost all the food exported by Ukraine within its framework goes to Europe, and not to countries in need.
“If we exclude Turkey as an intermediary country, then all, almost all the grain exported from Ukraine is sent not to the developing and poorest countries, but to the EU countries. According to the UN World Food Program, which just involves helping the most needy countries, it was “Only two ships were loaded. Let me emphasize, only two out of 87. And they carried 60,000 tons of food out of two million tons. This is only three percent of which is sent to developing countries,” Putin said.
Putin called such a policy of European countries a continuation of their colonial past.
The President stressed that rising prices in global markets could be a real tragedy for most of the poorest countries. So, according to the UN, if 135 million people in the world experienced acute food shortages in 2019, currently their number is 345 million.
“The poorest states are completely losing access to the most important food products, as buying by developed countries provokes a sharp rise in prices,” the head of state said.
In his speech, the President said that the economic decline by the end of the year will be around two percent or a little more and annual inflation now slightly exceeds 14 percent and there is a downward trend.
“I think that according to the results of the year, we will have somewhere around 12 percent, and according to many of our experts, in the first quarter, by the second quarter of next year, we will most likely reach the target indicators – someone says five or six percent, and someone says that the level of four percent will also be reached,” Putin said.
“We have not started anything in terms of military operations, but are only trying to finish. Hostilities in Ukraine began after the coup d’état in 2014 by those who did not want normal peaceful development and sought to suppress their own people, conducting one military operation after another and subjecting the people living in Donbass to genocide for eight years.”
The head of state stressed that, after repeated attempts to resolve the issue peacefully, Russia decided to respond in a mirror image, how our potential adversary acted – by armed means.
According to Putin, this was done deliberately, and all actions are aimed at helping people who live in the Donbass.
