Western Sanctions Strengthen Solidarity in Russian Society – Russia’s President Says

Yesterday, on March 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a videoconference meeting on measures of socio-economic support for the subjects of the Russian Federation, in which he also touched on the topic of the war in Donbass and the role of Western curators in it.

At the very beginning of the meeting, Putin recalled that the main purpose of the special military operation in Ukraine and Donbass is to help the people of Donbass, who have been subjected to genocide for almost eight years just because they wanted to belong to their people and remember their historical past. The President touched upon a number of important issues related to the war in Donbass, the Ukrainian government, its Western curators, the hypocrisy of Europe and Russia’s measures to counter Western oppression.

Ukraine has chosen wrong allies

The Kiev authorities sabotaged the implementation of the Minsk Package of Measures, and at the end of last year they publicly refused to implement it at all.
The Kiev authorities announced their intention to create their own nuclear weapons, which, with foreign technical assistance, posed an open threat to Russia.
There was already a network of dozens of laboratories in Ukraine, where military biological programs were conducted under the leadership of the Pentagon.

Military operation in Ukraine and Donbass

The appearance of Russian troops in Ukraine is not connected with the intention to occupy the country, and there is no such a goal.
At the very beginning of the operation in Donbass, the Kiev authorities were asked not to engage in hostilities, but simply to withdraw their troops from Donbass, but they refused and thus decided the fate of their country.
Ukraine, encouraged by the US and a number of Western countries, purposefully prepared for a forceful scenario, and a massive offensive on Donbass and then on Crimea was only a matter of time.
Ukraine is launching indiscriminate missile strikes on Donbass day after day.
To put an end to the genocide, Russia recognized the People’s Republics of Donbass, concluded treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with them.
If Russian troops had operated only on the territory of the People’s Republics, this would not have led to peace and would not have eliminated the threat to Russia itself, since a new front line would simply have been laid around Donbass, and NATO troops would have approached the border of Russia.
The country’s authorities are ready to discuss issues of principle for Russia during negotiations – the issues on the neutral status of Ukraine and its demilitarization and denazification.

Western influence on split of society

The so-called “civilized Western world”, the European and American press, did not even notice the tragedy of Donetsk on March 14, just as they hypocritically averted their eyes for the last eight years, when mothers in Donbass buried their children.
The obvious fact is the interest of Ukraine’s Western patrons in fueling the conflict and promoting anti-Russian sentiments – the West is supplying more and more weapons to Ukraine, supplying it with intelligence, and sending military advisers and mercenaries to the country.
Sanctions are being imposed to build an even greater wall between the Western and Russian world.

"I want ordinary citizens of Western states to hear me: they are now persistently trying to convince you that all your difficulties are the result of some hostile actions of Russia, that you need to pay for the fight against the mythical Russian threat from your own wallet. It's all a lie.

And the truth is that the current problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of years of actions by the ruling elites of their states, their mistakes, shortsightedness and ambitions. These elites are not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens in Western countries. They are obsessed with their own selfish interests and super profits," Putin said.

True face of Europe and USA revealed

The US and the EU actually defaulted on their obligations to Russia, and now everyone knows that financial reserves can be stolen.
These actions will encourage many countries to convert their paper and digital savings into real reserves in the form of commodities, land, food, gold, which will increase the deficit in these markets.
Arrests of foreign assets, accounts of Russian companies and individuals are a lesson for national businesses that there is nothing more reliable than investing in their own country.
A new package of sanctions and restrictions against Russia would follow in any development of events, and the military operation in Ukraine for the West is just an excuse for more sanctions.
The policy of deterring Russia is a conscious, long-term strategy, which Western leaders do not even hide, openly showing that sanctions are not directed against individuals or companies, but against the entire Russian economy and every citizen of Russia.
All the talks about political correctness, inviolability of private property, freedom of speech – all this turned out to be hypocrisy, even the Olympic principles were trampled, which also affected the Paralympians.

"In many Western countries, people are subjected to real harassment just because they are from Russia: they refuse medical care, expel children from schools, deprive their parents of work, ban Russian music, culture, literature. Trying to 'cancel' Russia, the West broke with all the masks of decency and showed its true nature that it is in analogy with the anti-Semitic pogroms, which organized the Nazis in Germany, the 30-ies of the last century," Putin said.

Fifth Column – instrument of Russia’s Destruction

The collective West will try to rely on the so-called fifth column, on national traitors, on those who “earn money here, with us, but live there.”
The collective West is trying to split Russian society, speculating on the socio-economic consequences of sanctions, provoke a civil confrontation in Russia and, using its fifth column, seeks to destroy Russia.
The Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and simply spit them out “like a fly that accidentally flew into their mouth,” and such a “natural and necessary self-purification of society” will only strengthen the solidarity of Russians.
The collective West and its fifth column are used to measuring everything and everyone by themselves and believe that everything is for sale and everything can be bought, but Russia cannot be broken by them.

Russia steadfastly resists sanctions

The sanctions obsession of the US and its supporters is not shared by countries where more than half of the world’s population lives.
The banking system was the first to be hit by sanctions, but Russian banks coped with this challenge.
The second wave of sanctions was designed to provoke panic in the trade sphere, but domestic manufacturers did everything to avoid a large-scale shortage in retail chains.
It did not work out to organize an economic blitzkrieg against Russia, so Putin expects new attempts to increase pressure on Russia, and he is sure that the country’s economy will certainly adapt to the new realities.

New measures to support Russian population

From April 1, Russia introduces payments for children from 8 to 16 years old inclusive, who grow up in families with low incomes. Thus, a unified support system will function in the country from the moment when a mother is waiting for a child until a child reaches the age of 17.
The President also instructed to analyze the effectiveness of measures to support people who have lost their jobs and, if necessary, improve them.
In the near future, all social benefits and salaries in the public sector will also be increased.
Russia plans to respond to external pressure with maximum entrepreneurial freedom and support for business initiatives.
It was instructed to increase the amount of advance payments under government contracts so that enterprises that fulfill orders from government authorities and companies with state participation receive money as soon as possible and put them back into business.
There will be no problems with financing from the federal budget, since the Russian economy generates a sufficient, good amount of income today, so the country will not need to resort to emissions.
As a measure to support regional finances, all payments planned for the current year on budget loans will be postponed, and payments on commercial loans will be replaced by budget loans if necessary.

Ru-Main, 17.03.2022
Source: Kremlin