The Russian economy has proved far more resilient than many top officials in the Biden administration. Photo: dreamnf photos/Shutterstock
Senior US officials expressed dismay in statements to the CNN network about the real impact of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for its military operation in Ukraine because, at first, He believed that the sanctions would quickly affect the Kremlin’s military machine and the daily life of the Russians.
“We expected that things like SWIFT and all the lockdown restrictions on Russian banks would completely ruin the Russian economy and basically going into September we are trying to deal with an economically weak Russia.” A senior US official was quoted as saying by Washington and the decision to disconnect some Russian banks from the European Union from SWIFT.
Another source who echoed these statements recalled that President Joe Biden’s administration predicted that, By now, the Russian economy should have suffered moreDue to the unprecedented level of restrictions.
“But the Russian economy has proved much more resilient than many senior Biden administration officials hoped to punish in February,” the CNN text said.
However, another informant assured that the sanctions were extended knowing that the most sensible consequences would not be immediate. ,We wanted to keep the pressure on Russia for a long time, while waging war in Ukraine, and we wanted to undermine Russian economic and industrial capabilities. So, we have always looked at it as a long-term game,” the official quoted the words.
By the way, on Monday Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia’s budget situation is now better than that of many G20 countries.
In this context, Putin said that the West’s efforts to “pressure” the Russian economy have been disappointed. “The economic blitzkrieg strategy (…) did not work, which is clear to all by now”He underlined.
Meanwhile, the country’s central bank this Friday slashed the key interest rate from 8% to 7.5%. The regulator justified the decision by continued reduction of inflation, which stood at 14.3% in August, and recovery of domestic demand.
The agency stressed that “the dynamics of commercial activity is better than the Bank of Russia forecast in July.”
“However, external conditions for the Russian economy remain difficult and still significantly limit economic activity,” the official statement said.
For its part, the country’s economic development ministry indicated in its August 31 report that GDP declined by only 1.1% in the first seven months of this year, a figure in contrast to forecasts from Biden, who reported April I said that Russian GDP “will fall by double digits this year alone.”
(with info from RT in Spanish and CNN)
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