Sanctions imposed against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine have failed to achieve any of their objectives, the country’s ambassador told Sky News.
Andrey Kelin was speaking to Sky News as an investigation by Sky’s Ed Conway revealed glaring gaps in the restrictions regimewhich allowed British companies – legally – to help keep Russian gas flowing and generate huge revenues for the Kremlin war machine.
He defended continued trade with Europe despite rising tensions, arguing that “business is pure business.”
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He also argued that the supply of weapons by the West, including Britain, Ukraine it was “bad” as it perpetuated the conflict, which he claimed would be worse for Kiev in the long run.
Speaking on The World With Yalda Hakim, Kelin said: “The aim of the sanctions was, first of all, to spoil (the) normal life of Russians so that they would say that (Vladimir) Putin is wrong.
“The second point of the sanctions was to harm the Russian economy as much as possible.
“The third point was to change the political framework.
“So none of these objectives were achieved by the sanctions.”
Despite the scenario of tense relations, Europe still depends on Russia for about 15% of your gasdelivering around €10 billion (£8.5 billion) since 2022.
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However, Kelin downplayed the importance of this trade for Russia.
He said: “It’s just a small portion of the budget, which is measured now in trillions of whatever it is – euros, dollars, pounds, rubles – the budget is big.”
He added: “We are not as greedy as Europe.
“There is no ideology in this.
“Why not if they are buying?
“Business is pure business. There is no politics. We don’t sanction Europe for buying anything from us.”
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Kelin continued: “The West is delivering weapons to Ukraine and this is bad because it is a war of attrition, but the attrition of Ukraine (is) the continuation of the conflict in Ukraine.
“The longer it goes on, the worse the situation will be for Ukraine.
“Not for us. Economically we are absolutely independent, morale is high, people believe in the president, this was demonstrated during the elections.”
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
