FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Sanctions Will Eventually Be Removed, Putin Assures Interviewers

June 6, 2018 (EIRNS)—In his extensive interview with the China Media Group today, President Vladimir Putin said Russia is not afraid of sanctions, because Russia will always defend its sovereignty.

“Sanctions and restrictions neither surprise nor scare us, they will never make us abandon our independent, sovereign development path. I believe that Russia either must be a sovereign state or there will be no Russia at all and the Russian people will undoubtedly choose the first option,”

Putin stated, according to coverage by TASS.

“There is no other way for us but we understand that our partners seek to use these sanctions and restrictions to hinder our development,” but, he went on to say,

“I have no doubt that ... it will lead to nothing....

“I believe that common sense will eventually prevail and all the illegal restrictions, which are harmful for the development of the global economy, will be removed with time, while we will be able to improve relations with all our partners, including the United States and other countries that impose sanctions dancing to the U.S. tune.”

The Russian President continued that

“those... who danced to the United States’ tune are beginning to suffer from the U.S. moves [to introduce restrictions] against those very countries.

“All these things will gradually—and I am not saying this only for the sake of rejoicing and being ironic—but all this shows that these tools cannot be universal and sooner or later it will become evident that they are harmful to everyone, including those who come up with such initiatives.”

Putin concluded: “I expect that one way or another, our relations will eventually return to normal.”

A complete translation of the interview is posted to the President’s Kremlin website.