Western sanctions ‘severely’ harming Russia: Putin

President Vladimir Putin acknowledges Monday in an interview with German daily Bild that Western economic sanctions over the Ukraine crisis are affecting Russia.

“Concerning our possibilities on the international financial markets, the sanctions are severely harming Russia,” he says in a long interview, calling the EU sanctions “a theater of the absurd.”

Moscow has been hit by US and European sanctions over the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces which has claimed more than 9,000 lives since April 2014.

In late December, the EU extended its sanctions by six months, arguing that the Minsk peace agreement signed by Moscow has not been fully implemented.

Putin says, however, that “the biggest harm is currently caused by the decline of the prices for energy,” according to an English-language transcript published by Bild online.

— AFP

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