The European Union continues to introduce new anti-Russian sanctions, despite its own economic losses, just in order not to “lose face“. This was stated by the director of the economic cooperation department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Dmitry Birichevsky in an interview with RT.
“Of course, they create difficulties, set obstacles, create problems not only for us, but also for themselves. This is a dead end, but they are ready to continue to suffer“, he noted. “By adding more and more new packages of sanctions, they no longer have any other way out - otherwise they will lose face“, the diplomat added.
Birichevski stressed that the economic situation in a number of EU countries continues to deteriorate against the backdrop of the sanctions policy. “Look at the German economy - it has been shrinking for the third year in a row. The economies of other European countries are also in bad shape: growth of 0.2, 0.3, 0.5% or even decline“, he said.
According to him, without relatively cheap Russian energy, it is difficult for European countries to modernize their economies, but they are “ready to suffer“. “If we compare politics and economics, economics has always been the basis for decision-making. But in 2022, politics overshadowed economics. Sanctions such as a complete rupture in trade relations between Russia and the EU, a refusal - as they now say - from “undemocratic“ Russian gas, oil and everything else“, said the director of the department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He also recalled that the history of sanctions in general shows their ineffectiveness. “We can recall that sanctions within the framework of the UN have never led to the results they were initially counting on. And with a country like Russia, this is completely impossible“, concluded Birichevsky.