Putin noted that for Russia there are no forever unfriendly countries
Russian President Vladimir Putin considers it wrong to call Western countries “unfriendly.”
He stated this today at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The phrase “unfriendly countries” has entered our public consciousness. It does not accurately reflect existing realities. You could say it doesn't reflect at all. We have unfriendly elites in a certain number of countries, unfriendly rulers. The political system in many countries of the world, unfortunately, is such that it often brings people with a low level of education and general culture to the top. They sometimes don't understand what they say and do. The result is obvious. Their work harms their communities and businesses. I say this with regret, because we are interested in our European partners being independent, sovereign and making decisions based on national interests. But unfortunately, this is often not the case at all,” Putin said.
He did not rule out that Russia will adjust its decision to freeze dividends of Western shareholders in special accounts and allow them to be partially withdrawn, because “we should not be like people who make the wrong decisions on the track of cooperation with Russia to the detriment of their own business.”
“We should probably make a move on both sides. We cannot place all the blame for the current situation solely on our partners, although we really want to do this. I deeply believe that we have always been fundamentally based on our desire to cooperate with everyone while respecting our interests. Unfortunately, we have not seen any respect over the previous decades. There was simply a desire to achieve our goal, including, to a large extent, at our expense,” Putin said.
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