The West, particularly the United States, has been using sanctions against Russia for many years to force the nation's leadership into toeing what the West refers to as the "international order" with the sanctions regime reaching new levels after the Maidan uprising in Ukraine in 2014. In a recent address at the plenary session of the 34th annual congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, President Putin addressed this issue and how Russia was coping with the current sanctions environment and would continue to deal with sanctions in the future. Here are some quotes from his speech with my bolds throughout:
"Let me note that the Russian business community has faced significant challenges over the recent years. We are well aware of this. These include a powerful sanctions pressure, primarily restrictions on international settlements and transactions on external markets. As a whole, these and other challenges are undermining the freedom of trade and investment in the world economy. I will also say a few words about this as an aside.
Importantly, Russian entrepreneurs have learned to work under sanctions during this period. They have adapted to sanctions, inventing and launching alternative mechanisms for cooperation with foreign partners – those who want to work with us. Besides, sanctions have become an additional catalyst of sorts to positive structural changes in the Russian economy, including in finance and technology, and in many other key spheres."
Putin goes on to take a deeper examination of the sanctions environment, why the West has imposed them and how severe they are:
"Sanctions are neither temporary nor targeted measures; they constitute a mechanism of systemic, strategic pressure against our nation. Regardless of global developments or shifts in the international order, our competitors will perpetually seek to constrain Russia and diminish its economic and technological capacities.
Moreover, whereas the so-called Western elites previously attempted to cloak this confrontation in propriety, they now evidently seem to no longer feel the need to be concerned about appearances, nor do they intend to be. They not only routinely threaten Russia with new sanctions but churn out these packages incessantly. One gains the impression that even the architects themselves have lost track of the restrictions imposed and their targets.
Here, the Ministry of Finance has tallied them. I state with confidence: 28,595 sanctions against individuals and legal entities. This exceeds – by a significant margin – all sanctions ever imposed on all other nations combined."
He goes on to observe that no matter what Russia does, the Western elites will find some excuse to impose even more restrictions as they have done throughout the post-Soviet era:
"Even if there is some gesture from their side – say, they propose to lift or ease something – we can expect that another way will be found to exert pressure, to throw a spanner in the works, as was the case with the well-known Jackson–Vanik amendment. The Soviet Union, against which it was originally introduced, no longer existed, and relations between Russia and the United States of America were at their absolute best, as good as they could possibly be. Yet the amendment continued to remain in force. And when it was seemingly repealed, it was in fact simply replaced with another restrictive instrument against Russia. Recall this: repealed, then supplanted."
Putin states that all that these endless sanctions have done is to destroy the old unipolar world economic order and create a new one:
"I reiterate: sanctions and restrictions are the reality of the existing new stage of development that the entire world, the entire global economy, has entered. The global competitive struggle has intensified, assuming increasingly sophisticated and uncompromising forms.
Thus, literally before our eyes, a new spiral of economic rivalry is unfolding, and under these conditions, it is almost embarrassing to recall the norms and rules of the World Trade Organisation, once zealously promoted by the West. Once… When? When these rules advantaged them… As soon as they became disadvantageous, everything began to change. And all these negotiations stalled. And, in fact, no one needs them anymore.
This is evident, and I have emphasised it repeatedly: a return to pre-existing conditions is impossible. We should not anticipate fully unfettered trade, payments, or capital flows, nor rely on Western mechanisms to safeguard investor and entrepreneur rights."
Here he outlines how Russia can fight against the reality of Western-imposed sanctions:
"In these conditions, it is important for Russian businesses to show flexibility, explore new markets, design their own technological solutions, and establish cooperation with reliable partners, there are many of them in the world. Of course, the Government and the regions must provide, and are providing, the required support here. For my part, I will do everything possible to support this process.
Russia is strengthening its sovereignty in all areas that would ensure the operation of businesses, such as the development of transport, logistics, and financial and payment infrastructure. We are already doing this and will definitely keep doing it.
I know and understand the challenges you are facing, but we will do everything to help you. Let me stress: only those countries that can ensure real, full sovereignty become stable in general and resistant to external pressure, and can progress dynamically in the interests of their people.
Let me give you a clear example. In fact, it is well known, but I will nevertheless use the occasion to say it again. We can see that most European countries have lost their sovereignty, and as a result they have faced serious problems both in the economy and in the security sphere. As for the economy, all of them have near-zero growth rates or are even entering a recession. On the contrary, the BRICS countries and those that wish to join the association understand the benefit of combining potentials, and in recent years they have been leaders in global growth, creating a high benchmark for economic dynamics.
Let me remind you that the GDP growth of the Eurozone was 0.9 percent in 2024, I mean of the “Big Seven” (Why is it big? It is not clear. What is big about it? Wherever you look, you can’t find any of them on the map.) that has the growth of 1.9 percent, while the BRICS has 4.9. In Russia, it was 4.1 for two years in a row – last year and the year before."
As we can see on this map from the World Bank, Russia's GDP growth far exceeded that of the Eurozone as a whole and on a nation by nation basis with rare exceptions:
"The so-called Western dominance slipping away, and new global growth centres taking the centre stage is a long-term trend, and I want to emphasise that. Yes, of course, we are fully aware of the advantages offered by our so-called Western partners, such as advanced technology and production process organisation. They have that, it is true. They have achieved a lot. We should respect that and use their best practices, but not copy them.
We should keep in mind that growth rates in various regions of the world will remain stable over the next several decades. And the fact that we have, to a certain extent, refocused our priorities (not through our fault, by the way) due to a number of circumstances may be a good thing. We are shifting our focus to global promising markets. All things that we need we will get one way or another.
Of course, this long-term trend will remain unchanged. It will be bolstered up by, among other things, the BRICS development platform that is currently taking shape. It will include resource, technology, personnel, finance, trade and investment components at a whole new level with the use of cutting-edge digital solutions, which will maximize the platform’s effectiveness and keep negative outside interference at bay.
I very much count on Russian businesses taking an active part in these joint projects with our BRICS partners and future BRICS members."
He also makes it very clear that foreign companies that left Russia in 2022 will be welcomed back to do business in Russia in the future, however, the Russian government is developing a procedure that will coordinate their return with mandatory guarantees of good faith and conscientious business practices. Foreign companies that left and have now been replaced by Russian businesses will not be given privileges or preferences if they choose to return and that companies who sold their businesses at fire sale prices when they left will not be able to repurchase these assets at the same highly discounted, ultra-low prices.
Putin closes with this:
"I wish everyone success for the benefit of Russia."
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