PARIS: France said on Tuesday that Western sanctions against Moscowlink over its invasion of Ukraine willcause theRussian economylinktocollapse.
“We will bring about the collapse of the Russian economy,” Finance MinisterBruno Le Maire told the Franceinfo broadcaster a day after France, the EUand others said they would impose a new round of sanctions on Russia.
“The economic and financial balance of power is totally in favour of theEuropean Union, which is in the process of discovering its own economicpower,” he said.
“We are waging total economic and financial war on Russia,” he said.
On Monday, the EU added top Kremlin-linked oligarchs and Russian PresidentVladimir Putin’s spokesman to its sanctions blacklist.
Among the high-profile names were close Putin allies Igor Sechin, head ofstate oil giant Rosneft and Nikolay Tokarev, boss of pipeline mammothTransneft.
Three men ranked within Russia’s 10 top richest by Forbes were also added:metals magnate Alexei Mordashov, tycoon Alisher Usmanov, and businessmanand Putin friend Gennady Timchenko.
Le Maire said that the total amount of Russian assets being frozen amountedto “almost 1,000 billion dollars”.
After the Russian central bank raised its key interest rate to 20 per centon Monday, “companies can only borrow at high rates”, Le Maire said.
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Le Maire acknowledged that ordinary Russians would also suffer from theimpact of the sanctions, “but we don’t know how we can handle thisdifferently”.
Le Maire said he would talk to France’s two energy giants TotalEnergies andEngie in the coming days to decide on their involvement in Russian energyprojects.
There was now “a problem of principle” with any collaboration with peopleclose to Putin, Le Maire said.
His remarks, which came after other energy majors including Shell and BPannounced that they would pull out of Russia, caused Engie’s share price toslump by five percent in early Paris bourse trading Tuesday.
Engie is notably involved in Russia’s pipeline project Nord Stream 2, whichGermany last week put on hold when Moscow recognised two Ukrainianbreakaway republics.
An aide to French President Emmanuel Macron also told reporters on Mondaythat the imposition of new sanctions, which are to “raise the cost” ofPutin’s war, was “a priority”. -APP/AFP
