 "Vladimir Putin")
Russia will stand up against Western sanctions and “provocations”, President Vladimir Putin told a virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Tuesday, a group that also includes China and India.
Putin said Moscow planned to boost ties with the group and supported the transition to settlements in local currencies in foreign trade. He also warned that the potential for conflicts and the risk of a global economic crisis were on the rise.
Russia views countries, such as China, India, and Iran, as key partners in confronting the United States and resisting what it portrays as US attempts to dictate the world order.
Putin told the group there was a growing risk of a new global economic and financial crisis fuelled by developed countries' debts and worsening food and environmental security. “And all these problems, each of which is complex and diverse in its own way, in their totality lead to a noticeable increase in the potential for conflict,” he said.
Putin also reassured Asian leaders of Russia’s stability and unity, in his first appearance at an international forum since the country was rocked by a brief armed mutiny last month. “The Russian people are consolidated as never before,” Putin told a virtual meeting of the SCO, a group that also includes China and India.
“Russian political circles and the whole of society clearly demonstrated their unity and elevated sense of responsibility for the fate of the Fatherland when they responded as a united front against an attempted armed mutiny.”
His emphasis on Russia’s unity at a meeting with key allies appeared to show how keen he is to remove any doubts about his own authority on the world stage after the short-lived mutiny led by Wagner mercenary founder Yevgeny Prigozhin late last month. In his speech, Putin thanked members of the SCO who he said had expressed their support for his efforts “to protect the constitutional order, the lives and security of citizens”.
