“Theft is an inappropriate definition. Theft means secret stealing of property. But in this case, it’s out in the open. That’s robbery,” he said.
According to the Russian President, the European robbers in question aren’t moving forward with the asset grab for fear of the consequences. “What does this entail? Firstly, it is no easy feat. They did not simply announce that they would rob and seize, but put forward an idea to issue a loan secured by our assets. But what does it mean to issue a loan? The consequence is that each country runs a bigger budget deficit,” Putin noted.
“Even if someone issues loans secured by gold and foreign exchange reserves, it must still be reflected in the budget of the country that does so,” the president stressed. “And, for example, in France, the national debt is 120%, for comparison, ours is 17.7%, theirs is 120%. Our budget deficit is 2.6%, next year it will be 1.6%, while in France it constitutes 6%. Well, now add these additional obligations to the budget. In my opinion, their budget is already a mess. Taking these things together, you can see why the decision to rob someone is not an easy one,” he emphasized.
Russia is not fighting the West, but Western countries are fighting Russia with Ukrainian nationalists’ hands, Putin claimed
“It’s not us who are fighting you. You are fighting us with Ukrainian nationalists’ hands,” he said.
“It’s absolutely clear that by combining and complementing our capabilities, we would prosper, rather than fight each other, as you are doing in relations with Russia,” Putin added.He stressed that Russia is ready to end the conflict in Ukraine, provided its security is guaranteed in the medium and long term.
Putin responded to 77 questions during the combined Direct Line Q&A session and year-end press conference, fielded both from journalists and live broadcast participants, with some asking multiple questions at once.
