BEIJING:
On the eve of a visit to China, Russian leader Vladimir Putin blasted Western sanctions as his country’s economy teetered on the brink of recession, wounded by trade curbs and the cost of his war in Ukraine.
Russia and China jointly opposed “discriminatory” sanctions in global trade, Putin said in a written interview with China’s official Xinhua news agency published on Saturday. Putin will be in China, Russia’s biggest trading partner, from Sunday to Wednesday in a four-day visit that the Kremlin has called “unprecedented”
“To sum up, economic cooperation, trade and industrial collaboration between our countries are advancing across multiple areas,” Putin said of China, which the West accuses of backing Russia’s so-called special military operation in Ukraine.
“During my upcoming visit, we will certainly discuss further prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation and new steps to intensify it for the benefit of the peoples of Russia and China.”
