A Russian official expressed outrage after France's finance minister stated that the West was conducting a "total economic and financial war" against Russia on Tuesday, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its sixth day.
"Today, some French minister has said that they declared an economic war on Russia," tweeted Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia's Security Council. "Watch your tongue, gentlemen! And don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones."
Today, some French minister has said that they declared an economic war on Russia. Watch your tongue, gentlemen! And don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) March 1, 2022
The statement came in response to a statement by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who stated that the West is "going to deliver a total economic and financial war against Russia."
"Economic and financial sanctions have a formidable efficiency and there is no ambiguity about the European determination regarding this subject," said Le Maire in an interview with France Info on Tuesday. "We will make a total economic and financial war against Russia. We can already see the effects. The ruble has fallen by 30%. Russian foreign reserves are now collapsing like snow under the sun. Putin's war treasury is already cut to almost nothing...we provoked the collapse of the Russian economy."
The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on Russia's central bank, its top businesses, oligarchs and officials, including President Vladimir Putin himself, and barred some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system.
The Russian rouble fell steeply on Monday, although the currency clawed back a bit of ground on Tuesday.