Moscow (agencies)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday at an economic forum in St. Petersburg that Russia expects to restore relations with Ukraine after the end of the “special military operation” in that country.
“Sooner or later, the situation will return to normal,” Putin added, during a question-and-answer session with Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan.
Russia sent tens of thousands of its soldiers to Ukraine on February 24, in what it called a “special military operation” to disarm and uproot what it described as “Nazism” in Ukraine. On Friday, Putin stressed that his country had “nothing against” Ukraine’s possible entry into the European Union.
“We have nothing against it, it is their sovereign decision whether to join the economic unions or not,” Putin said during the plenary session of the St. Petersburg Forum. It is their business, the Ukrainian people’s business.
Russia, which has launched an offensive in Ukraine since February 24, rejects Kyiv’s accession to NATO, which Moscow considers a threat to its security, but “it is up to them with regard to their economic integration,” according to Putin.
“The European Union is not a military alliance, unlike NATO,” he added.
But the Russian president considered that “Ukraine will turn into a semi-colony” for Western countries if it joins the European Union, and added, “This is my opinion.”
I consider that his country’s attack in Ukraine has nothing to do with global economic difficulties, especially energy price inflation, blaming the West and its “wrong economic policy”. We all hear about the alleged “Putin inflation,” Putin said, “but our steps to liberate Donbass have nothing to do with that.”
And the Russian president continued, criticizing the “systematic mistakes of the American administration and the European bureaucracy”: “Our operation represents a lifeline for them to hang everything on our backs.” He also criticized the “wrong economic policy” followed by Western countries.
He also reiterated that his country and its army did not prevent Ukraine from exporting its grain abroad, considering that Kyiv has many options, and “we are not the ones who mined the Black Sea ports.”
Ukraine has planted mines off its coast to protect itself from a Russian military landing.
The United Nations has been negotiating for several weeks with Moscow, Kiev and Ankara to reach an agreement that would allow the export of millions of tons of Ukraine’s suspended grain.
If an agreement is reached, it will lower food prices and ease fears of a global food crisis.
Putin stressed that “the situation on the world food markets is deteriorating, but it is not our fault at all.” “We don’t want people somewhere, in a number of countries, to suffer from starvation,” he said. He added that Russia is not responsible for the rise in prices in the global grain market, accusing the West of raising food prices by printing money and “hunting” foodstuffs in global markets.
Putin said that Russia was ready to increase its exports of grain and fertilizer, and that it would send food exports to Africa and the Middle East. He also expressed his confidence in the return of Western companies to Russia, especially European ones, after they withdrew due to the Russian attack on Ukraine.
And he added, “I have no doubts that over time many of our partners from European countries will return to the Russian market, and we will not put obstacles in front of them. We are open to the whole world.”
He said that Russia is entering a new world order as a “strong and modern country.”
At the end of his 73-minute speech to this annual gathering, Putin said it was “clear” that the rules of the new world order would be set by “strong and sovereign states.”
He stated that Russia’s decision to launch a special military operation in Ukraine was difficult but necessary.
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