Moscow "
doesn't give a damn
" about the risk of Western sanctions in the event of an invasion of Ukraine, the Russian ambassador to Sweden said bluntly.
"
Pardon me for the expression, but we don't give a damn about all their sanctions
," Viktor Tatarintsev told Aftonbladet in an interview broadcast late Saturday on the Swedish newspaper's website.
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Westerners, led by the United States and Western Europeans, fear that Russia will invade neighboring Ukraine, and threaten Moscow with "
strong
economic sanctions" in this case.
“
We have already had so many sanctions imposed on us, and in a way they have had positive effects on our economy and our agriculture
,” underlines the experienced Tatarintsev, who speaks fluent Swedish and has held several positions in Sweden.
“
We are more self-sufficient and have been able to increase our exports.
(For example) we don't have Italian or Swiss cheeses, but we have learned how to make Russian cheeses as good using Italian or Swiss recipes
,” he explained.
"
New sanctions aren't good, but they're not as bad as the West says they
are," he said.
For Tatarintsev, Western countries do not understand the Russian mentality: “
The more the West puts pressure on Russia, the stronger the Russian response will be
”.
Washington says it fears an “
imminent
” invasion, stressing that Moscow has massed more than 100,000 soldiers near the Ukrainian border and has just begun military maneuvers in the Black Sea and Belarus, de facto surrounding the country.
On the contrary, Tatarintsev assures us that Russia is trying to avoid a war.
“
It is the most sincere wish of our political leaders.
The last thing people in Russia want is war
”.
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Moscow, which has already annexed Crimea in 2014, conditions the de-escalation to a series of requirements, in particular the assurance that Kiev will never integrate NATO.
A condition that Westerners find unacceptable.
Several rounds of talks in recent days have failed to make progress towards a resolution of the crisis, which Westerners describe as one of the most dangerous since the end of the Cold War three decades ago.
