PRESS RELEASE

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Glazyev: Sanctions Will Hurt West Worse

March 5, 2014 (EIRNS)—This release was issued today by the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee.

The West will suffer more from sanctions than Russia, according to the assessment of Sergei Glazyev, economist, and advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an interview with RIA Novosti, Glazyev said that if the United States were to impose sanctions on Russia, Moscow might be forced to drop the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to pay off any loans to U.S. banks. Moscow could recommend that all holders of U.S. treasuries sell them if Washington freezes the U.S. accounts of Russian businesses and individuals.

"In the instance of sanctions being applied to stated institutions, we will have to declare the impossibility of returning those loans which were given to Russian institutions by U.S. banks," Novosti quoted Glazyev as saying. "We will have to move into other currencies, create our own settlement system." He added:

"We have excellent trade and economic relations with our partners in the east and south, and we will find a way to reduce to nothing our financial dependence on the United States but even get out of the sanctions with a big profit to ourselves.

"The Americans are threatening Russia with sanctions and pulling the EU into a trade and economic war with Russia.

"Most of the sanctions against Russia will bring harm to the United States itself, because as far as trade relations with the United States go, we don't depend on them in any way.

"We hold a decent amount of treasury bonds — more than $200 billion — and if the United States dares to freeze accounts of Russian businesses and citizens, we can no longer view America as a reliable partner. We will encourage everybody to dump U.S. treasury bonds, get rid of dollars as an unreliable currency and leave the U.S. market."