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"To a large extent," Russia's economic stability "is the result of the strengthening of sovereignty, including projected onto the economy," Putin said at Thursday's annual Q&A session.
"Sovereignty comes in different forms, including defense, technological, scientific, educational, cultural. This is especially important for our country, because when we lose our sovereignty, we lose statehood. That's the most important thing," Putin added.
Russia's path toward economic sovereignty goes back over a decade, owing its success largely to the unprecedented sanctions war the West launched against Moscow in 2014, at the start of the Ukrainian crisis, veteran financial analyst Paul Goncharoff says.
"Back in 2014 the 'sanctions on steroids' era began against Russia. With each following year the dose only increased," with Russia eventually becoming "the most sanctioned country in history," Goncharoff, general director of consulting firm Goncharoff LLC, recalled in an interview with Sputnik.
Russia was able to overcome the sanctions pressure through baby steps, starting with timely investments in agricultural self-sufficiency to reduce dependence on imports, as well as "stimulating essential import replacements for machinery and technological items," the observer explained.
23 November, 09:10 GMT
Gradually, Moscow "realized that there were economically beneficial alliances to be made with countries that were to one or another degree impacted by restrictions from the West," Goncharoff added, highlighting the priority eventually given to developing good economic relations with BRICS countries, the bloc's expansion "and the use of sovereign currencies outside of the US dollar and Euro," illuminating "the need and desire by many sovereign governments to get out of the 'influence sphere' of the G7, and their payments systems."
Russia's strategy, particularly after its exclusion from the SWIFT banking system in 2022, proved correct, according to the analyst.
"Government fiscal income revenues from Russian imports have dropped in the West and increased in the East by tens of billions of dollars. Russia’s exports increased by US$31 billion after the West imposed the nastiest post 2022 trade sanctions. This has been a boon to the neighboring countries of Central Asia, Southeast Asia, India, MENA, Africa, and the Mercosur countries who now derive benefit from the Western-forced disengagement of Russia," Goncharoff emphasized.
Ultimately, Russia was able to find new partners outside the Western bloc by hitching its economic wagon to developing nations enjoying strong economic growth.
"All essential goods and services have been successfully replaced by Russian manufacture, or from what are now known as ‘friendly’ nations. The US Dollar is no longer used in settling international trade commitments, and with an understandably volatile transition, is gradually becoming systematized," the observer said.
"To sum it up: Import substitution, trade in local sovereign currencies, infrastructure changes toward the Global South and East, redirecting oil and gas to the Global South and East, and participating in the enhancement and expansion of BRICS as the new economic frontier all come together to have formed a successful series of strategic decisions which are ongoing and gathering strength," Goncharoff concluded.
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