The Russian President hold a joint press conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Putin suggested that “never again will we need the West” during yesterday’s press conference. He also insisted he hoped for “common sense” over sanctions.
Yesterday, there was a joint press conference of Belarusian and Russian Presidents. President Putin referred to the new agreement struck with trusted ally Lukashenko.
“In this situation, when Western countries have launched a total sanction war against Russia and Belarus, it is important we boost our integration with the union states,” he said.
“We will fight against any attempts to stall our development or to isolate us artificially from the global economy (…) I think this is useless – Russia and Belarus are linked closely through economic relations, traditional links and threads, including through our industrial cooperation,” he added.
“This attempt will not be successful, we will only become stronger because we will continue to develop our competencies and we will not self-isolate.”
The Russian President also noticed an analogy between Gagarin’s first space flight that was 61 years ago and Russia’s current actions.
“The sanctions were total, the isolation was complete but the Soviet Union was still first in space (…) We don’t intend to be isolated. It is impossible to severely isolate anyone in the modern world – especially in such a vast country like Russia,” Putin stressed.
Putin stressed Russia’s economy was in shape and the West’s economic “blitzkrieg” had gone up in flames, but said the risk that sanctions could harm Russia in the medium and longer-term, Russian news agencies reported.