Sanctions against Russia have led to an increase in the share of BRICS countries in Russian trade, Ekaterina Mayorova, the director of the trade negotiations department at the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, told Sputnik.
"Sanctions against Russia are leading to us curtailing our trade with the West, while, on the contrary, we are increasing it with the BRICS countries. If we look at the dynamics of our trade relations with BRICS, the share of trade with them has clearly increased. Yes, there are difficulties, but we are working," she said on the sidelines of the session "Re-BRICSing: Expectations from Trade," organized by the Russian WTO Expertise Center as part of the WTO Public Forum.
Russia has repeatedly stated that it would cope with the sanctions pressure that the West had begun to exert on Russia several years ago and continued to increase. Moscow noted that the West lacked the courage to admit the failure of sanctions against Russia. In the West, opinions have repeatedly been voiced that anti-Russian sanctions were ineffective. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the policy of containing and weakening Russia was a long-term strategy of the West, and the sanctions had dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy. According to Putin, the main goal of the West is to worsen the lives of millions of people.