BRICS meet: Putin, Xi hit out at US, EU for imposing sanctions against Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin Chinese President Xi Jinping and on Wednesday expressed their concerns against the Western sanctions on Russia during the BRICS conference.

The BRICS Business Forum meeting was held ahead of Thursday’s 14th summit of BRICS nations. which will be held in Beijing via video link followed by high-level dialogue on global development the next day. China is this year’s chair of the BRICS.

Putin said the “politically motivated” Western sanctions on his country have caused global economic challenges like a decrease in business activity, a spike in unemployment, a shortage of raw materials and difficulties in ensuring global food security.

In his address, Putin also said that Russia was in the process of rerouting its trade and oil exports towards BRICS countries. “New politically motivated sanctions are imposed, again and again, the mechanisms of putting pressure on competition are being reinforced,” he was quoted as saying by a state-run news agency.

“A deliberate breakdown of cooperation ties is taking place, transport and logistics chains are collapsing,” he said. “All this is contrary to common sense and elementary economic logic is to the detriment of the interests of business on a global scale, and negatively affects the well-being of the population of all countries.”

“There is a decrease in business activity, an increase in unemployment, a shortage of raw materials and components, difficulties in ensuring global food security are being exacerbated, prices for grain crops and other basic agricultural products are driven up,” President Putin said.

History has shown that hegemony, group politics and bloc confrontations bring neither peace nor stability, but rather war and conflict, President Xi said in a keynote speech delivered in a virtual format at the opening ceremony.

The Ukraine crisis has again sounded the alarm for humanity. Countries will surely end up in security hardships, Xi was quoted by the state-run news agency.

Describing sanctions as boomerangs and double-edged swords, Xi said those who politicise, leverage and weaponise the global economy and wilfully impose sanctions by taking advantage of dominance in international financial systems will eventually bring disasters to the world.

Politically motivated Western sanctions have caused global economic challenges like unemployment – Vladimir Putin, Russian President