Putin advises Russians to prepare for economic struggle

In a Dec. 3 appeal, Russian President Vladimir Putin advised the members of the Federation Council to be prepared for a long period of economic struggle. “We are supposed to be prepared for a period of low raw material prices, possibly, and foreign restrictions can drag on for long,” he said, as reported by Russian media. He called for the need to change the economy’s structure so that it doesn’t depend on raw material and natural resource exports.

Europe has failed to uphold the ideals of conflict resolution that was intended with the launch of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the eurointegration.com.ua news site in Belgrade. “Instead we’re observing movement in the opposite direction,” he said. Lavrov compared the current geopolitical situation to the dawn of the First World War. “The development of events conjures up associations with the period of the First World War, where politicians lacked the wisdom to address an approaching catastrophe,” he said, adding that “geopolitical ambitions” took over. 

Russia may resort to air strikes in the event of a new wave of escalation in the war in Donbas, Oleksandr Turchynov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told Ukrainian television in a Dec. 3 interview. “What’s happening in the Middle East and Syria, which is the active use of military aviation, deeply disturbs us,” he said. “We are studying the strategy and tactics of the Russian military in employing airstrikes.”

Zenon Zawada: Unless it’s bluffing, the Russian government is not heeding to the Western sanctions, which means that it has to prepare for war. The sanctions are designed to cause severe disturbances in the Russian economy in the next two years, which means Putin’s regime will have to take action to avert its demise. The possibility for expanded warfare is significant.