Western countries are facing food shortages and are forced to give up some products because of sanctions against Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday at the congress of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Russia (RSPP), the country’s largest business association, whose board of directors includes famous Russian billionaires from the Forbes rating, The Moscow Times and Vedomosti report.

“It has come to the point that the leaders of Western countries recommend their citizens to eat turnips instead of lettuce and tomatoes. Turnips are a good product, but even for turnips you will have to come to us. The level of our harvest is much higher than that of our neighbors in Europe,” said Vladimir Putin, referring to the alleged food crisis in the West, according to Agerpres.

Putin recalled that in March 2022, after the start of the “special military operation” in Ukraine (as Moscow calls the invasion of the neighboring country), many Western companies were forced to leave the Russian market due to pressure from the authorities.

“At that time, foreign analysts predicted depression and the decline of the consumer sector, promised empty shelves, a massive shortage of goods, the failure of the service sector, but life turned out differently,” he said.

In this context, Putin said that it would be difficult for Western countries to do without Russian fertilizers in order to increase their production, saying that the situation with Western sanctions in general resembles the proverb “he who digs for someone else, falls into it himself.”

The Russian president has assured key representatives of the local business community that their current investments in the economy will “pay off three times” in the future, despite Western sanctions.

According to Putin, despite Western sanctions imposed due to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, the country has “huge opportunities” in almost “any field of activity” and for all businesses, asking Russian billionaires “not to focus only on receiving.” for profit, but also for the public good” – to build roads, hospitals and social facilities.

On the eve of Putin’s visit to the RSPP, 15 people left the board of directors of the Union, including billionaires Araz Agalarov (owner of Crocus Group), Leonid Fedun (co-owner of Lukoil) and Alisher Usmanov (co-owner of MegaFon and Metalloinvest). ), reports The Moscow Times.

Previously, the Kremlin demanded a “voluntary” contribution of 300 billion rubles to the budget from big businessmen who are part of the RSPP. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Thursday that it will consist of a 5% tax on excess profits.

Even if the Russian authorities managed to avoid the collapse of the economy in general thanks to sanctions, the situation is far from as optimistic as the Kremlin wants to present it. The Russian economy will shrink by 3% in 2023, the international rating agency Moody’s announced at the end of February in its medium-term forecast. Current sanctions will further reduce Russia’s growth potential, which is already at a low level of 1.6%, reports Forbes.

Russia invaded Ukraine, an unprovoked and unjustified aggression against a sovereign state, the first such aggression in Europe since World War II. The West, including the US, has imposed a series of sanctions against Russia to limit the means of financing its military machine.

___

• Follow the latest events of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro