MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. The recent foreign economic policy of the West is aimed at enslaving and dragging economies down to a primitive level, rather than at progress, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"If the West sells pharmaceuticals or agricultural crop seeds to other countries, then it orders to ‘kill’ the national pharmaceutical sector and selection," the head of state said. "Essentially everything is reduced to that in practice. When machinery and equipment are supplied, the local machine-building sector is destroyed," Putin noted. "I understood that as early as when I was the prime minister. As soon as a market is opened for a certain commodity group, the local producer lies down and it is not possible to raise their head anymore. Relations are being built in such a way. Therefore, the capture of markets and resources takes place. Countries are losing their research and technological potential. This is not progress, this is enslavement, reducing economies to a primitive level," the Russian President said.

Technological development should reduce global inequality instead of intensifying it and this is how Russia is traditionally implementing its foreign technology policy, Putin said, citing Russia’s participation in building nuclear power plants in other countries as an example. Russia is concurrently creating competence centers and training the nation cadre there, he noted.

"We are creating an industry. We do not merely build plants but create an entire industry," the head of state said. "We essentially provide other countries with the opportunity to make a real breakthrough in their research and technological development, reduce inequality and bring their energy sector to a new level of efficiency and eco-friendliness," he added.