Putin: Russia Managed to Offset All Losses from Sanctions

According to the Russian leader, the country lost about $ 50 billion as a result of restrictions MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. Russia has lost about $50 billion as a result of foreign sanctions, but it has managed to offset the losses, including thanks to import substitution, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “To hell with those sanctions,” Putin told TASS in an interview for the project entitled “20 Questions with Vladimir Putin”. “According to various estimates, we have lost 50 billion but we have earned the same amount,” the President added. He agreed that the losses were significant, but the introduction of sanctions “made us use our brains.” As Putin marked, Russia focused on import substitution, and started manufacturing such items and technologies that the country did not have before or simply forgot about them and lost them. “We recreated all of this,” the head of state said. “And we are undoubtedly benefiting from it. It diversifies our economy. In fact, it helps us solve a key problem.” Putin dismissed assumptions that Russia was “deliberately hurting [itself]” as pure nonsense. “Counter-sanctions helped boost the agroindustry. They unshackled our domestic market,” he pointed out. He recalled that agroindustrial production had skyrocketed and that Russia was now the world’s number one producer of wheat. “Nobody would have ever thought that we would become such a major exporter. And we will raise this volume,” Putin emphasized. “We started to produce enough to meet our basic food needs: dairy, poultry, and pork,” Putin added. At the same time, he acknowledged, additional measures are needed to develop the production of vegetables and beef.