There was a threat of collapse of the Russian economy due to the unprecedented weight of sanctions, but Russia managed to stabilize the situation and get on the growth track, however, considering its potential, 3% growth is not enough, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
"There was a threat of collapse. And we really had to mobilize all the resources and internal forces to prevent that collapse. The task was to prevent a collapse first, because the economy was hit by an absolutely unprecedented burden of these sanctions. And no country in the world has ever faced such a blow, and theoretically no country in the world can withstand such a blow," Peskov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.
Moreover, the sanctions hit at a time when the country was still recovering from the COVID-19 economic shocks, Peskov said.
"Thanks to quite sagacious, wise decisions of the country's leadership and thanks to the titanic work of the government, it was possible to reach, let's say, a plateau, to stabilize, and then, in an absolutely unexpected way, to enter the growth trajectory. In fact, that's what everything was done for, everything was planned," Peskov said.
After the beginning of the Russia's military operation in Ukraine in 2022, Russia became the most sanctioned country in the world, with more than 15,000 sanctions imposed by the US and its allies. Sanctions target Russian exports of energy, food, and fertilizers, and its imports of high-tech products and various manufactured products. In September, during the Eastern Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin stated that Russia should be self-sufficient, but this does not mean isolation.