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Sanctions fail to split Putin’s circle - Ivanov

“I can say with a 100% confidence that if these expectations existed, they were naive and ludicrous,” Ivanov said

Chief of the presidential administration ITAR-TASS/Artem Korotayev

Chief of the presidential administration

© ITAR-TASS/Artem Korotayev

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. Western sanctions have failed to split the inner circle of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and it would have been naive and ludicrous to expect it, the chief of the presidential administration, Sergei Ivanov, said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on Thursday.

“I can say with a 100% confidence that if these expectations existed, they were naive and ludicrous,” Ivanov said.

“Why was it done? I don’t know, to be honest,” Ivanov said. “How is it possible to punish a hundred people? And that entails about one hundred people.”

“Are there many among them who have bank accounts and estate abroad? Have you heard that some property of the officials on the sanction lists was under arrest?” Ivanov asked rhetorically adding that “It is naive and ludicrous” as those officials had no accounts in foreign banks.

The head of the Kremlin administration said that this was done “out of nastiness and foolishness and nothing more.”

“Nothing good will come of it,” he said. “As for me, I was barred from entering lots of countries earlier because of my job and I have become accustomed to it.

Western sanction have had a good psychological effect on Russians

Western sanction have had a good psychological effect on Russians, especially on liberal-minded, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergey Ivanov, said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda.

“On one side, the sanctions have done certain harm and I openly admit it,” Ivanov said. “And on the other, they - strange as it may seem - have had a positive psychological effect on the public opinion.”

“Many representatives of the so-called liberal community told me: ‘Listen, at last we got it that in spite of efforts we had undertaken to become Europeans and in spite of all our actions we have been, so to speak, rubbed out and in a very unfair way’,” Ivanov said.

“That’s why we, the rich and wealthy, want them /if we keep on speaking rudely/ to go fly a kite and you are right in the Kremlin as we should live by our wits and depend on no-one,” said Ivanov citing liberals. “So these are the conclusions.

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