Egyptian economist Mustafa Abdel Salam confirmed in a statement to RT that Western pressure and sanctions, which were aimed at weakening the Russian economy, were not successful.
Abdul Salam said: “Despite the painful and consistent blows being dealt by the Western alliance to the Russian economy and the country’s foreign exchange reserves, the spread of rumors about Moscow’s weak ability to pay the burden of external debt, and attempts to exhaust the sources of funding for the war in Ukraine, these attempts are largely led by the United States. have failed.
He emphasized that “the proof of this is the cohesion of the Russian economy, the continued export of oil and gas by Russia, which are the two largest sources of foreign exchange, the failure of the United States, and with them Europe in the policy of “zeroing” Russian energy exports and its complete ban, as announced several times, and the continued inflow of foreign exchange into the state treasury. its return to its level against major currencies led by the dollar.
He added: “It is true that Western sanctions have largely focused on a plan to zero out Russian oil and gas exports, but Moscow has managed to find new markets for its oil exports as those exports have increased to China and India, the two biggest energy consuming countries due to their large industrial base and the intensity of their exports. Population. Oil exports from Russia also jumped 55 percent in May last year, and India has increased its imports of Russian oil more than 25 times since the crisis began in Ukraine , which received about a million bpd in June, compared with about 30,000 bpd in February.
And he added: “The rumors spread by Western circles, and along with them by international rating institutions, about the imminent bankruptcy of Russia and its non-payment of contributions and the burden of external debts, did not reach their goal, since Moscow paid these burdens on time, despite the freezing of about half of its foreign exchange reserves placed in Western banks. Attempts to lower Russia’s credit rating also failed.
He pointed out that “with severe inflation that hit the Western economies, especially the American and European ones, inflation in Russia slowed down and did not record jumps. Rather, it was less rigid due to the increase in Russia’s domestic production of food, raw materials and fuel”.
He pointed out that “the Russian Central Bank managed to maintain the strength and power of the banking sector, despite the fact that Western sanctions affected the assets of Russian banks abroad, as the assets of some of them were seized and deprived of the opportunity to use the global SWIFT system. We have not heard about the bankruptcy of a Russian bank since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine.” And we have not heard about the failure of a Russian bank to pay its obligations, both external and to its clients.
He continued: “Despite the failure of the West to achieve its goals, including paralyzing the movement of the Russian economy and sources of foreign exchange and scaring Russian investors, the Russian economy remains under great pressure due to the huge costs of the war in Russia. , and the presence of a state of uncertainty about the duration of the war, and the possibility of its expansion and prolongation The conflict period, and foreign investment remains concerned about the confiscation of their assets in Russia, in addition to the fact that the European shift to diversify energy sources in the coming months may affect exports Russian gas and oil in the future, and not on the benefits of the Nord Stream 2 project, despite its huge costs.”
He added: “Maybe this is harmful and beneficial, as they say, and therefore Russia should benefit from the lessons of the current war and move towards creating a strong economic union in the face of the Western powers, an alliance that includes, in addition to Russia and China, such promising economies, like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the countries of Southeast Asia.”
He believed that “Russia should continue to seriously increase the holding of gold as part of the foreign exchange reserve and the holding of promising currencies such as the Chinese yuan, the Indian rupee, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc.”
Nasser Hatem – Cairo
Source: RT