Putin’s press conference after the meeting of the State Council. The main thing

Russian President Vladimir Putin answered journalists’ questions after a meeting of the State Council on youth policy. “Kommersant” collected the main theses.

About the Russian economy

• The predicted collapse of the economy did not take place, although there is a decline.
• Inflation this year will be slightly more than 12%, which is better than in other countries, including the G20 countries.
• It is important to replace in Russia, foreign investment is domestic.
• There are no disturbing elements in the Russian economy.
• 2022 in Russia passed “confidently enough”, everything connected with the special operation is forced and necessary.

About the special military operation

• I every day dating with the military.
• Nobody wants the unification of the Russian people, except us. And we we will do it. And we’ll do it.
• All armed conflicts end with negotiations on a political track, the Russian Federation has never abandoned them, this is the leadership of Ukraine for itself banned.
• The intensification of hostilities leads to unjustified losses, the chicken pecks grain by grain.
• Russia will strive to ensure that the conflict in Ukraine ends as soon as possible, and the sooner the better.
• If a Patriot is delivered to Ukraine, we will “click” the Patriot as well.
• The Patriot is quite an old system, it doesn’t work like the Russian S-300.

On the role of the West in the conflict

• All this began in 2014 after the coup d’état provoked by the United States, our goal is not to spin the flywheel of a military conflict, but to end this war, we are striving for this.
• The resources of the NATO countries are not running out yet, but Ukraine is receiving weapons mainly of Soviet production, and this is already close to exhaustion. Western countries also have new technology, but it will not be so easy to switch to it.
• What happened at the Nord Streams is a terrorist attack, everyone recognized it. Who benefits from having gas flow only through Ukraine? Here is the one and blew up.

On gas and oil prices

• The European Commission imposed on Russia the transition to exchange pricing for gas, we persuaded Brussels not to do this, but now they do not know how to “steer out” of the current situation.
• Oil Price Ceiling Response Decree will be signed on Monday-Tuesday.
• These are precautionary measures, because no individual damage to the Russian economy and the fuel and energy complex is visible. We sell approximately at the prices that are set as a ceiling.

On the message to the Federal Assembly, the meeting with big business and the New Year

• The situation is developing very dynamically, so it was difficult to record the results and specific plans for the near future right at a particular moment in time. Message will take place at the beginning of the year, of course.
• With pleasure meet with representatives of big business, but now COVID has begun to rise again, another attack is swine flu. The only question is this.
• For Russia, people are dangerous who do not value it, but only “take out” money from here. We are loyal to everyone”, the main thing is that they work effectively.
• I’ll try to meet this New Year in the circle of loved ones, so that close people are nearby. I’ll watch the president’s speech.