WARSAW, April 2. /TASS/. The anti-Russian sanctions did not cause an expected effect, as evidenced by the strengthening ruble, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Saturday.
"The sanctions that we have imposed against Russia until now, do not work," he said. "It is proven by the ruble exchange rate that is now returning back to the moment of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine," the Prime Minister said. "This means that our actions have not caused the effect, desired by the European leaders."
According to the Polish prime minister, "some European leaders say that we have to get back to normality as they are being pressured by European businesses."
Morawiecki urged Europe to slap "more real sanctions," but also pointed out that it "needs real money, which is not moved from one budget to another, but new European funds, to help people here and to create real life prospects for them."
"We must be united in our resolute actions against Russia, we must confiscate their property. It is a source of new money. I have been pointing to this source for weeks," the prime minister said, adding that he was not speaking about freezing, but about seizing "hundreds of billions of dollars," which "are waiting in European banks, in the Central bank and at oligarchs’."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine, stressing that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Western countries responded to the actions of the Russian authorities by slapping sanctions, both personal and sectoral, particularly concerning the state debt and Russia’s banking sector, whereas many private companies have decided to suspend operations in Russia or fully withdraw from Russian projects and refuse investing in them.