U.S., West Using Sanctions to Topple Putin, Put New Man In Power
The United States and its allies in the West is disrupting Russia because it wants to topple President Vladimir Putin so that they can put in a new man in power, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday. Sergei Ryabkov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, however believed Mr Putin will not give it easily.
The U.S. as well as the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia's finance, defence and energy sectors, including some individuals who belonged to Mr. Putin's private circle, as a result of its incursions in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. Now combined with plummeting oil prices, the Russian economy has started to feel the significant damage. Economists had predicted a recession in Russia, and will hit it hard, that Russian gross domestic product will drop by as much as 8 percent.
The drop in global oil prices may be good news to other nations, but not to Russia. The country relies heavily on imports from food to just about anything. The exchange rate between rubles and dollars had jumped by so much the difference in the falling oil prices. A ruble is now worth 40 percent less than before, thus making imported things into Russia more expensive.
Ryabkov said this was the exact plan of the U.S. and its allies in the west, to distort the economic stability of the country which it acquired during the "seven fat years," or when Russian oil at prices sold in excess of $100 a barrel. "It is hardly a secret that the goal of the sanctions is to create social and economic conditions to carry out a change of power in Russia," Reuters quoted Ryabkov telling a hearing in the lower house. "There will be no easy or fast way out of this."
As such, Garry Kasparov, a political activist and chess grandmaster, warned the actions being slapped against Russia, in particular Mr Putin, will not be just felt exclusively in that country. It will create a ripple effect that will eventually harm and go beyond Ukraine, the former Soviet Union or Europe.
Georgia and Armenia have felt the impact. Its lari and dram, respectively have fallen against the U.S. dollar and against global benchmarks. Independent they may be of Russia geographically, the two nations remain dependent on the Russian economy for their very existence. Even Kazakhstan, which is across the Caspian Sea, is also affected.