Putin said the West wants to inflict a strategic economic defeat on Russia

Western countries behaved as unreliable partners and tried to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, including on the economic front. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the VTB Forum "Russia Calling!" on December 4.

The President recalled that in 2022 entrepreneurs, companies and even entire industries faced serious challenges due to the actions of elites in Western countries. Putin pointed out that these states behaved as unreliable partners, destroying a large number of production and logistics chains. In addition, they have damaged cooperation that has been built over decades.

"We often hear both in the political sphere, in the military and in the economic sphere that these (Western. - Ed.) countries have been tasked with inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, including in the economic and technological direction," the head of state said.

He pointed out that these states wanted to radically weaken Russia's industry, finance and services, create an insurmountable deficit of goods in the country, make the labor market unstable and reduce the living standards of Russians.

Putin emphasized that all these attempts failed. The Russian economy has gone through a difficult period, but it has not only fully recovered, but is undergoing qualitative structural changes. The head of state noted that this is extremely important, and suggested that such an outcome may be the most important achievement of the Russian economy over the past two or three years.

Tried and true: how the West reacts to Russian Federation's warning

The world split into two camps after Vladimir Putin's speech and the Russian army's response

The day before, on December 3, Putin pointed out that the U.S. and Europe understood Russia's strategic defeat as the destruction of the Russian Federation, which has repeatedly faced such attempts by Western countries throughout its history.

Prior to that, on November 7, Putin said at a plenary session of the Valdai Club that the U.S. goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, but Moscow, despite this, has never refused to engage in a dialog with the West on strategic stability and is ready to conduct these negotiations.