MOSCOW: Russian President Vladi mir Putin said in Moscow, Trade between the United States and Russia has increased by 7 percent, despite US economic sanctions, this week.
Putin said when I looked at the statistic today… it even surprised me a little. It also surprised US Commerce Department officials, who say that while US exports to Russia are up by about 1 percent in 2014 from last year, imports from Russia are down by about 13 percent.
The differences are as stark as the two countries’ public descriptions of the overall effect that US and European sanctions have had on Russia.
While the United States insists it sees signs Putin’s government is beginning to crack under the penalties imposed as punishment for Russia’s activities in Ukraine, the Kremlin says that any discomfort is only temporary.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told we have been in much worse situations in our history, and every time we were getting out of these fixes much stronger.