The 2024 edition of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) takes place from June 5 to 8. The theme of this year's event is “The foundation of a multipolar world - forming new points of growth”.

West's Anti-Russian Sanctions Are 'Strategic Game' That Has Been Understood, Says African Official

12:59, 8 June 2024

Muhammad Nooh Osman

Writer/Editor

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Russia has faced thousands of Western sanctions since the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, with almost all sectors of the Russian economy targeted by the restrictive measures. However, the country has managed to withstand all Western pressure by developing its own resources to replace imports, and it has grown even faster.

Sputnik

Anti-Russian sanctions are a "Western strategic game that many countries have understood and have distanced themselves from," Mahamady Koussoube, the executive director of the Burkina Faso Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Sputnik Africa in an interview.

"Many countries have not followed the sanctions, whether in Africa, Europe, or Asia," Koussoube said on the sidelines of the ongoing St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2024).

He argued that "the West is playing its game, which is always to dominate the world, which is always to be on top."

"Sanctions don't work anymore because they are sanctions that, beyond their real objectives, have political objectives that have nothing to do with justice, legality, or international law," he added.

Despite the restrictive measures, the Russian economy is showing resilience and "continues to grow beyond expectations, beyond the forecasts of those who imposed these sanctions," the official stressed.

In Koussoube's view, this is an example that "inspires other countries that really want to go without this Western hegemony."

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The Burkinabe official added that "Russia practically feeds the world, despite being a big country with a big population," setting a good example on how to achieve food security.

"For a country like Burkina, which also aspires to food self-sufficiency, which aspires to export its production, to produce enough, and to export, Russia is more than a school," he told Sputnik Africa. "Russia is an ideal partner, which will inevitably bring to our country its technology, its technical expertise, and really the experience it has in the field of food production."

The official also stressed that his country had "freely chosen its partners" and "does not intend to be dictated to by anyone."

"Burkina will not close the door to any country that really wants to work with it on an equal and respectful basis," Koussoube stated.

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Touching on the use of national currencies in international trade, the head of the Burkina Faso Chamber of Commerce and Industry commended it as a "salutary path."

"A country that doesn't control its currency cannot claim full sovereignty. It's really an important tool for development, a strategic tool for a country's economic policy," he argued.

In this sense, he fully agrees with Vladimir Putin's call for African countries to develop trade in their currencies. An exhortation that is all the more justified given that today "we have a hegemony and sanctions pass through this currency [the dollar] to reach certain countries," the official stressed.

However, having one's own currency is not enough, warned Koussoube.

"Monetary policy must also be really well adapted to the environment and really coherent with the country's economic policy," he concluded.