MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is working on the assumption that sanctions against it by the United States and its allies will last for many years, but that U.S. influence on the world economy is waning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
Peskov was commenting on an interview in which U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt told the Financial Times that Washington was aiming to halve Russia’s oil and gas revenues by the end of the decade.
“We have no doubt that these sanctions will last for many years. Even without statements from the respected (U.S.) representative, we already knew this. We assume this when formulating our line,” Peskov told reporters.
Russia frequently boasts that its economy has proved more resilient than expected in the face of unprecedented Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
On the other hand, it faces persistent inflation and shortages of labour, and its economic growth, which stood at 5.0% year-on-year in October – has mainly been based on a massive increase in military production.
“We also have no doubt that the United States will continue to try to put pressure on Russia and the entire system of trade and economic relations, essentially destroying the format of these relations,” Peskov said.
To compensate for the decline in trade with the West, Russia is turning to China, India and other markets in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
“The world economy is not limited to the U.S. economy,” Peskov added, saying China was catching up with the United States.
“The world is much more diverse than the United States, so the American-centric world is ending, and a period of diversity is beginning, including in international economic relations.”
(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
