Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev gave an interview to leading Russian media. During the conversation, they touched upon the economic sanctions that the West threatens Russia with, the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine, as well as relations with the United States. collected the main statements of the former president.

Economic sanctions against Russia

Medvedev said that Russia should not be frightened by "hellish" sanctions once again.

“It won't work. And what's more, the people who talk about it, I'm absolutely sure, and they themselves don't really believe in it. But this is such a figure of speech, part of the political culture: "Let's talk about it in order to perform this ritual dance." And they regularly perform it,” the politician is sure.

He recalled that someone is constantly imposing sanctions against Russia or tightening them. Medvedev noted that he had in mind not only the period of Russian history, but also the Soviet era:

“In relation to the Soviet Union, and this is our Motherland, sanctions were imposed at least ten times, for various reasons. Including, by the way, in relation to the well-known gas pipeline - Urengoy - Pomary - Uzhgorod and so on. So it's not new."

Earlier, US President Joe Biden said that the US authorities would introduce such restrictions that Russia had not even thought about. Such measures will be taken in the event of an escalation of the situation in Ukraine. According to him, Russia will be overtaken by a “catastrophe”. In particular, Russian banks allegedly will not be able to conduct transactions with the dollar. The head of the White House made a reservation that such sanctions could have a negative impact on the US economy.

Medvedev, when answering the question of whether Russia could cope without the dollar, replied that Moscow would choose other currencies in this case: “The absence of dollar payments can be replaced by payments in euros. If there are decisions on the euro, there is the yuan. This is a new, very promising reserve currency, given the size of the economy of the People's Republic of China.”

He stressed that both the American and European authorities understand that Russia will take just such a step. “Who benefits from this is a matter of taste,” added the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.

At the same time, he said that Russia is already gradually reducing the share of the dollar in the total volume of the currency basket and the reserve system. While it is equal to 20%, like the yuan.

The convertibility of the ruble will be ensured through the sale of Russian oil and gas products. “This convertibility is connected primarily with trade. If our goods, oil, gas are bought – and they will be bought anyway – then convertibility is ensured,” Medvedev stated.

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Nord Stream 2 is in Europe’s interests

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council said that “I’m 100% sure that it [Nord Stream 2] will be put into operation, simply because miracles don’t happen ". However, he noted that this is his personal opinion and he may be wrong.

“If there is an economic need, it must be fulfilled. Gas costs on the spot 2 thousand euros periodically. Nobody could have imagined this five or ten years ago. That's gigantic money!" Medvedev stressed.

It is beneficial for European countries that the project will start working in the near future. Medvedev suggested that politicians who want to block the gas pipeline "to spite the Russians" ask taxpayers if they are ready to pay huge sums for gas.

“From the point of view of economic logic, the interests of our own citizens, the same voters in Germany and other countries, this must be done as soon as possible,” Medvedev added, speaking about the launch of Nord Stream 2.

But at the same time, he could not guess when it would be done: “I don't know. There are enough smart people there, you can put a lot of different sticks in the wheels, it’s also true. I'm not saying that they will definitely do it by such and such a number.

At the same time, the ex-president believes that the obstacles to the commissioning of the project are connected precisely with the economy. “The problems with Nord Stream, you yourself remember very well, arose not because of Ukraine or any complications with the United States of America, but because the Americans, and above all the Trump administration, then decided that there was nothing for the Russians to do on the European market, it is necessary to supply their liquefied natural gas to the European market. This is what started it all," he said.

The construction of Nord Stream 2 lasted three years. On September 10, 2021, the completion of construction was announced. Both lines are currently filled with technical gas. The pipeline is ready to go. Germany suspended the certification of Nord Stream 2 AG as an operator, saying that the company must reorganize.

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The aggravation of the situation in Ukraine

Medvedev believes that hostilities between Russia and NATO are "the most dramatic, simply catastrophic scenario." He expressed the hope that it would not come to that.

“War would not be desirable in any case, no one is looking for war, and everything must be done so that there is no war,” he stressed. To prevent an armed conflict, the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia is convinced, it is necessary to maintain diplomatic contact.

"It is precisely to agree on security guarantees, these are political and diplomatic means, these are negotiations, this is the use in our relations of the principle of indivisible security, which is fixed in all fundamental European and international documents, when the security of one side cannot be achieved at the expense of the security of the other side," he specified.

At the same time, Medvedev expressed hope that it would be possible to achieve a decrease in tension around the situation in Ukraine.

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Russia's proposals on security guarantees

“They are not tough, they are just very specific, very specific, and they fix our concerns,” the ex-premier emphasized.

In particular, the Russian Foreign Ministry suggested that NATO abandon its expansion to the east - to the Russian borders.

Moscow is worried that when Ukraine joins NATO, "a new military base and new types of strike weapons will appear in the immediate vicinity of Russia."

“In this sense, we are talking about the fact that we find ourselves in a very difficult geopolitical situation, but we cannot ignore this. The documents that were formulated and handed over to the Americans are connected with this,” Medvedev explained.

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On the leadership of Ukraine

According to the politician, the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky did not disappoint him. “I believe that he is doing exactly what a person with the level of his training, with the level of his professional suitability for the post of President of Ukraine, should have done. And, unfortunately for himself, this probably ultimately leads to the destruction of Ukraine itself,” Medvedev believes.

He said that in the end, the people of Ukraine will get tired of the mess that is happening in the country, and they will choose a new leadership that will be ready to improve relations with Russia. This will not be a pro-Russian policy, but it should be aimed "at achieving a reasonable balance on a variety of issues, at recognizing geopolitical realities, including Crimea and a number of other issues."

“I think that sooner or later it will happen. It’s just that it has never happened in the world that only one force has always dominated, and since 2014, as you know, for obvious reasons, nationalist-tinged forces have come to power,” Medvedev noted.

Due to the fact that Ukrainian politicians “lie, do not comply with decisions” and act against part of their own population, the politician sees no point in contacts with them.

“This decision should be made by the president of our country, his partners. But I have openly stated my position, you know it: I do not consider such contacts expedient,” he added.

But at the same time, according to the deputy chairman of the Security Council, no one opposed the inclusion of the United States in the negotiation process with Ukraine.

“The president also spoke about this, as far as I remember, more than once. The Americans are already in the game, as they say. They are actively influencing Ukrainians, they are actively trying to create problems for us. In this regard, let them openly participate and conduct some kind of negotiations, influence, use their channels of influence on the same Ukraine,” Medvedev said.

He stressed that the United States can participate in the negotiations, the main thing is that the Minsk agreements are implemented by Ukraine.

“And this is the main problem, since in words everyone declares adherence to these agreements, and even Ukrainians talk about it, but do nothing,” Medvedev said.

With regard to Western influence on Ukraine, as Medvedev said, it has become a "toy" of NATO and the United States, "because Ukraine is used as an instrument of geopolitical pressure on Russia." At the same time, neither the Americans nor the Europeans need the state itself, “no matter how sad it sounds for Ukraine.”

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Relations between Russia and the US

If Washington does not provide Moscow with guarantees of Russia's security, the dialogue on extending arms agreements will be difficult, Dmitry Medvedev said. He noted that withdrawal from various agreements is “always bad.”

“And in this sense, it is impossible to exclude any development of events from the point of view of contract law. I'm not even talking about our position.

Look, the Americans have withdrawn from a large number of treaties lately. We sadly stated this, but what can we do? Went out and out.

Naturally, under such conditions, the background for continuing negotiations, for example, on the limitation of strategic offensive weapons, will be extremely difficult,” the politician said.

At the same time, he believes that there is no need to revise the nuclear doctrine. “Because everything is fixed there. We have the right to respond with the use of our country's strategic nuclear forces if our country or our allies are hit by a nuclear strike or a strike using weapons of mass destruction, or if our country is threatened by another danger that is aimed simply at its existence, he recalled.At the same time, the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council believes that the existence of NATO is a paradox. First of all, because the military-political bloc has no enemy.

“We never said that. Yes, there are contradictions, there are problems, but we never said that. Moreover, we tried to build relations, and various negotiations were going on, including even about how we could be closer to NATO. But they didn’t hear us, they don’t want to see us, so the situation is developing according to a different scenario,” Medvedev complained.

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Cyber ​​attack during elections in Russia

One of the topics of conversation between the politician and journalists was the cyber sphere. Medvedev said that Russia and the United States are engaged in fruitful cooperation, a positive example of which is the detention of REvil hackers:

“At least, unlike many other areas, they are actively asking for cooperation here, sharing certain information, because there is no way without it. And all these cases, all these operations that were carried out, are, in fact, joint operations.”

According to him, if states do not share data on the theft of financial information, information related to credit cards, then not a single person in the world will be insured against the negative impact of hackers.

“In this case, we agree with the position of the Americans, indeed, cybercrime must be fought collectively, because it is transnational in nature. It does not matter which citizens participate, where they are, and so on, because we understand how it all works,” Dmitry Medvedev said.

There are also negative examples. In particular, the United States did not give a definite answer to the hacker attacks on the servers of the CEC of the Russian Federation during the elections to the State Duma. Medvedev claims that half of the attacks came from the United States.

“It’s really always very difficult to keep track of it, because there are different ways to confuse it all. But nevertheless, objective data such. By the way, they haven’t answered us anything definite yet on this topic,” said the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia.

bbabo.Net