Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday (March 25) that the West has launched a “total war” against Russia by trying to destroy the country’s economy through sanctions.
“Today we have been declared a real hybrid war, a total war,” Lavrov said. “This term which was used by Hitler’s Germany, is now voiced by many European politicians when they talk about what they want to do with the Russian Federation.”
“The goals are not hidden, they declared publicly—to destroy, break, exterminate, strangle the Russian economy and Russia as a whole,” he added.
Russia’s economy has taken a big hit from the US-led sanctions campaign that started after Putin ordered the assault on Ukraine. On Thursday (March 24), the White House released a fact sheet that boasted of the damage the sanctions have done to Russia’s economy.
“This economic collapse of Russia’s GDP will wipe out the past 15 years of economic gains in Russia, according to the Institute for International Finance. Inflation in Russia is already spiking, with analysts projecting it to rise up to 15 percent on a year-over-year basis, and the Russian Government has been downgraded to ‘junk’ status by major credit rating agencies,” the White House said.
The sanctions have done nothing to stop the fighting in Ukraine and are having an impact on the entire world, as President Biden warned on Thursday. “The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well,” he said.
