Putin insistent that ‘colonial’ EU sanctions have backfired
VLADIMIR PUTIN yesterday promised to propel Russia to the top of a new world order and said sanctions had backfired, in his most bombastic speech since the war began.
In the 75-minute address, Mr Putin said he would complete his “special operation” in Ukraine and Russians should back him to secure their future.
“Russia is entering a new era as a powerful sovereign country and will become even stronger,” he told the St Petersburg Economic Forum. “Only strong and sovereign states can have a say in this emerging world order or they are doomed to become colonies.”
Mr Putin used the speech to reflect on Russian progress in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where over the past six weeks Russian artillery has pounded cities into rubble. However, Russia has so far failed to entirely capture either Donetsk or Luhansk, the regions which
make up the Donbas. Mr Putin accused the West of arrogance and the US of behaving as “God’s messenger”, saying: “They think... that they have won and that everything else is a colony, a backyard and the people living there are second-class citizens.”
At his speech’s core was the promise that Russia could withstand “colonial” sanctions that he said would cost the EU €400billion (about £343billion).
Mr Putin said: “The economic blitzkrieg against Russia never had any chances of success. And the weaponry of sanctions is a double-edged sword.”
It came as the UK Ministry of Defence yesterday said up to 15,000 millionaires have fled Russia because Western sanctions have hit their luxurious lifestyles and made businesses hard to run.
Scepticism of the war was “particularly strong amongst Russia’s business elite and oligarch community”, the MOD said, adding: “Migration applications suggest that 15,000 Russian millionaires [in US dollars] are likely already attempting to leave the country.”
Several high-profile Russian oligarchs have fled Russia over their opposition to the war, such as banker Oleg Tinkov, but the MOD analysis highlighted the lower-profile Russian business owners also quitting the country.