Russian President Vladimir Putin shouldn’t be nervous about Western sanctions — fairly the alternative, actually.
Confronted with the prospect of a 12th spherical of EU sanctions — which might embrace commerce in something from diamonds to needles — the Russian chief disregarded the plan as ridiculous and took a jab at Europe and its crawling bedbug drawback.
“Maybe the much less junk, the higher. There’s much less of an opportunity of bedbugs coming right here from giant European cities,” Putin joked on Wednesday, reported Russian state-run information company TASS.
A number of European cities, together with Paris, are battling an infestation of bedbugs in current months. The tiny bugs have swarmed public transport, elevating alarm amongst residents and public officers, and sending cities right into a frenzy.
Final month, French intelligence even blamed Russian propaganda for stoking fears concerning the bedbugs by posting faux articles that seemed like they have been written by respected French newspapers.
Putin’s remark comes because the EU is making ready a brand new spherical of sanctions towards Russia, which is prone to embrace export restrictions on welding machines, chemical compounds and diamonds, amongst different gadgets. In accordance with EUobserver, Lithuania has proposed a plan which additionally contains the ban of exports of “nails, tacks, drawing pins” and “stitching needles, knitting needles.”
Putin — whose full-scale invasion of Ukraine is heading towards the two-year mark — has ridiculed the proposal, saying that Western officers “are actually merely reaching the purpose of absurdity of their fantasies.”
