Putin Believes Western Sanctions on Russia Has Failed

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a video meeting with senior economic officials on April 18, that the West is trying to provoke the collapse of the Russian banking system and shortage of goods through economic sanctions, but in the end, Russia withstood this unprecedented pressure, and the “economic blitzkrieg” launched by the West has failed.
Although inflation has risen, with a rate of 17.5% as of April 8, Putin insisted that the exchange rate of the Russian ruble has stabilized, foreign exchange has flowed back to Russian banks, and domestic inflation is being stabilized. Putin also believes Western sanctions backfired against the United States and the EU, which will in turn lead to the deterioration of the Western economy.
Earlier, Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer spoke about his meeting with Putin, telling the media that Putin seems to be quite confident in his military operations in Ukraine and believes that he is winning this war. Nehammer pointed out that Putin is “in his own war logic” to the crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine, and accused Ukraine of genocide in the Donbas region. Nehammer said Putin “knows exactly what’s going on now” and that Western leaders need to confront his logic with “what we see in Ukraine ”.