Russia will withstand any type of Sanctions-Russian Ambassador to Uganda 

KAMPALA-Russia’s Ambassador to Uganda, His Excellency Vladlen Semivolos has scoffed at the West for its unprecedented barrage of sanctions that he believes are futile. Since Russia started its special military operation in Ukraine, droves of western countries have announced waves and waves of sanctions that experts say can only be with an ulterior motive of destroying the Eurasian country.

Speaking to this newspaper on Wednesday, Amb. Semivolos said that Russia has endured sanctions from the 1960s and has therefore developed a self sufficiency to weather them.

“Just before we sent the first Cosmonaut to space, there were some economic restrictions that western countries applied on Russia. We know how they think and we know their motives,” Semivolos said.

In spite of those sanctions, Russia was able to recover from the devastating Second World War, rebuild itself and simultaneously develop its science. It became the first country to send the first man into space.

To many observers, sanctions are a tool which along with media propaganda and military means the western world has tried to cajole strong powers like Russia and China. This perceived action against powerful rivals is emphasized by Amb.Semivolos.

“The West used different pretexts to launch new sanctions which they wrongly think will destroy us. The very fact of our existence and strength bothers them because we have equal if not stronger power in every sense,” Semivolos adds.

Going by US President Joe Biden’s claim that he expects Russia to come out of Ukraine weaker because of sanctions and the fatigue of war, many analysts see sanctions as a tool adopted to weaken or destroy other countries.

“The West has tried to dismember us for centuries without success. One thing they have failed to understand is the mentality of Russians. We are strong and capable to withstand any pressure and we are doing exactly that, ” Semivolos said.

Notably, a spate of western sanctions against Russia across the last decade fortified Russia which evolved into a self sufficient economy with a robust payment system different from international systems.

“We developed self sufficiency in every sector. In agriculture, we became a leading supplier of grain, yet we previously depended on other countries like the US. In most sectors including minerals and the extractive, we are self sufficient, a strategy that has shielded us from the indiscriminate sanctions of the west” Semivolos adds.