The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed to Europe's willingness to suffer from anti-Russian sanctions

The European Union (EU) continues to impose new sanctions against Russia, despite its own economic losses. Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the Department of Economic Cooperation at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said this in an interview with RT on June 8.

"Of course, they create difficulties, create obstacles, create problems [not only] for us, but for themselves too. This is a dead end, but they are ready to continue to suffer," Birichevsky said.

According to him, the EU is adding new sanctions because "otherwise it will lose face." The diplomat stressed that the economic situation in some European countries continues to deteriorate amid the sanctions policy.

"Look at the German economy — it has been shrinking for the third year in a row. The economies of other European countries are also in poor shape: growth of 0.2, 0.3, 0.5%, or even a recession," Birichevsky said.

He added that European countries are experiencing difficulties in modernizing their economies without relatively cheap Russian fuel. The diplomat pointed out that the sanctions that the European Union imposed against Russia in 2022 are comparable to the complete severance of trade relations, although the history of sanctions shows their ineffectiveness.

"We can recall that the UN sanctions have also never produced the result that they initially hoped for. And with a country like Russia, this is absolutely impossible," Birichevsky concluded.

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On April 25, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, announced that sanctions against Russia had not prevented the growth of its trade. Shoigu noted that in 2024, the volume of industrial production in the country increased by 4.6%. This was due to an 8.5% increase in manufacturing output.