MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. US President Barack Obama is fundamentally wrong in his comments regarding the current condition of the Russian economy, the chairman of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev, said about US President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address to the US Congress.
In part, Obama claimed that the sanctions imposed on Russia had isolated it and left its economy in tatters.
In his blog, Kosachev does not deny “the seriousness of the problems the Russian economy has encountered,” but he believes “it is a great delusion” to think that the current situation will be fatal for Russia and its economy.
“We survived the 1990s, when everything was far worse. We have grown stronger. Without outside assistance. We shall survive and get stronger again. But only those who support Russia at such a dramatic moment, and not hamstring it, will eventually stand to gain,” Kosachyov said in his blog.
He believes that what Obama describes as Russia’s isolation and his personal achievement may eventually turn out the West’s worst strategic loss ever since the end of the Cold War.
“Bombastic rhetoric by the ‘world policeman’ about Russia’s isolation and so on may be good for internal use, but it certainly does not work in the real world,” Kosachyov said.
“The worst risk is not that of losing the Russian market, which is still large and will certainly recover some day. It is about the loss of credibility and integration perspective. The expectations that power in Moscow will change hands and everything will get different are erroneous: Russians’ consolidation around their leader indicates that the people regard the current sanctions and other measures towards Russia as targeted against them personally. It is not a result of propaganda, but a direct effect of sanctions,” Kosachyov said.