Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday that the Kremlin believes that the German economy has been in trouble for two consecutive years because Berlin has left Russia, which is a struggle.
Zakarova said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Germany failed to claim its sovereignty because Berlin failed to claim its sovereignty, which is an annual business activity in the economic field.
Russia, which has been hit hard by Western sanctions on the Ukraine war, is facing the threat of a possible recession, government officials said at the meeting.
Zakharova said German companies left the Russian market “with tears in their eyes” because Western sanctions were forced to do so.
The spokesman said they are now leaving the domestic market because “Germany no longer has the resources needed to sustain its economic, industrial and scientific development.”
Russia is indeed a lucrative market for German companies, but after Western countries began to impose economic sanctions on the Ukrainian war, many companies chose to leave or reduce their business, three years ago.
Initially, the Russian economy performed well under sanctions, especially due to the shift toward weapons production, but signs indicate a crisis is brewing.
Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Russian Central Bank, called for a new growth model for the economy, while Minister of Economic Affairs Maxim Reshetnikov warned of the recession.
Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to draw a more optimistic picture, demanding avoidance of stagnation or even recession.
