Kremlin: China complies with anti-Russia sanctions but does not support them
Despite the fact that China has joined the anti-Russian sanctions, it does not support them, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov in an episode of “Moscow. The Kremlin. Putin” on the TV channel Russia-1.
“Many Chinese banks and economic structures have been forced to observe the same restrictions that are applied by the Americans and other countries, because we still live in the century of interdependent economics. This is why, of course, caution is quite often exercised by our Chinese partners, but this doesn’t mean they are supporters of these sanctions,” Peskov remarked.
He observed that 10 years ago it would have been hard to imagine that the trade volume between Russia and China could reach hundreds of billions of US dollars. “We planned for 100 and got 107 [billion dollars],” Peskov pointed out. He considers this the best kind of evidence that “the flywheel is picking up speed, and the gradual development of trade, economic and investment cooperation is bearing its fruits”.
Peskov believes that the international community has been “excessively infected with unilateral restrictions that are abused for mercantile purposes”. These restrictions, he claims, are illegal with respect to international law and the standards of international trade, and are designed to benefit the US’s own economy.
“US President Donald Trump claimed that the US economy grew by 3.2% in the first quarter, that is huge growth,” Peskov noted.
“But let’s face it, such growth was only possible thanks to such blatant protectionism and the rather brutal protection of the USA’s rights to the detriment of other countries. This is exactly what Chairman Xi and President Putin said about the unacceptability of such sanction aspirations,” the Kremlin spokesperson remarked.