Russian Economy Crash Claims Totally Inaccurate -Ex Austrian FM

The Austrian diplomat and journalist made her remarks in light of claims by senior officials about the collapse of the Russian economy, about which she said it is an utterly inaccurate allegation. 

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In this vein, Kneissl said that any claim that sanctions are hurting Russia's economy is completely misjudged. Kneissl said that, in addition to oil and gas, Russia supplies the world market with uranium, important metals and other materials that are equally vital to the global economy.

The former minister said that "one thing is certain, we are only in the middle of a global economic situation where we see interdependence," adding that "oil is a globally traded commodity, and if it’s not flowing west, it can easily flow south, north, east. And this is already happening."

As for the Russian ruble's growing reliance on commodities, Kneissl said this is "an interesting development in this monetary world because it has gained strength due to the fact that oil, gas and other important commodities that you cannot easily replace are at its backbone."

"We have seen an energy crisis and runaway inflation from 2021 at the latest. Now a lot of blame is put on the war [in Ukraine], on Russia.... That's not true... but unfortunately, that's what you hear from European central banks. The whole composition of the crisis was here long before," Kneissl said, commenting on the world economic crisis. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on economic issues on Thursday that in the current difficult global situation, with inflation and food shortages on the rise, Russia has been able to cope confidently with external challenges thanks to its responsible macroeconomic policy in recent years, in addition to systemic solutions to strengthen economic sovereignty, as well as technological and food security.