MOSCOW, Jan 28The economic sanctions that scare Russia every day, by and large, speak of the impotence of the United States, otherwise they would have introduced them long ago, but Washington is stopped by the fact that the sanctions will hit hard not only the States, but mainly their European allies , said Alexander Shirov, director of the Institute for National Economic Forecasting, to RIA Novosti. «All Washington's rhetoric about sanctions has already set its mouth on edge. When I hear them, I remember the saying «to spite my mother, I will freeze my ears»: acting in spite of us, they are doing themselves badly. And although the sanctions, oh which they endlessly talk about, are serious in themselves, they will not agree to their introduction. For one simple reason: Russia is not Iran. Russia is the largest country, the sixth economy in the world, without which it is impossible to imagine international economic relations today,» he said. Shirov noted that the West has been talking about Russia's disconnection from the SWIFT financial system for six years now. «And what is holding them back? Yes, the fact that, in fact, this is a crossbow. They will harm themselves: how will they pay for our gas, oil, coal, metals the next day after Moscow is disconnected from SWIFT? We have already created an alternative a system that the Central Bank will easily launch,» said the director of the Institute for National Economic Forecasting.Yesterday, 14:25 The expert assessed the readiness of Russian banks for new sanctions. According to Shirov, the threats of the West that it is supposedly ready to completely abandon the supply of Russian gas and oil do not stand up to scrutiny either. “You can say anything, but when pipes start bursting in the houses of Europeans from the cold, they are unlikely to thank the leaders of their countries for this. Washington does not concern it, it does not need Russian hydrocarbons, but Europe depends on them, some countries are without them they cannot do at all. Germany, for example, maintains its high competitiveness in the world market thanks to our gas,» he stressed. As for another frequently heard anti-Russian measure — a ban on the sale of electronics for household appliances, then, according to Shirov, » firstly, the United States will lose the huge Russian market, and secondly, all these chips, microcircuits can now be replaced, for example, in China. «In a word, it is obvious to me, speaking constantly about economic sanctions, the West is In fact, it is trying to exert, first of all, informational and psychological pressure.On the one hand, on the other hand, if the West still decides to impose hellish sanctions against Russia, this may lead to the crossing of the red lines beyond which direct conflict becomes real,» he concluded. media reports
