7 Feb 2015 17:12

Putin: Western sanctions 'can't be effective'

SOCHI, Russia. Feb 7 (Interfax) - President Vladimir Putin has argued that the Western sanctions against Russia can't achieve their purpose though they "do cause us certain damage and harm."

"I don't think that, at the end of the day, those attempts that are being made, including the so-called sanctions, will make anyone happy," Putin told a congress in Sochi of the Independent Trade Unions Federation of Russia.

"They definitely can't be effective against a country such as ours, though they do cause us certain damage and harm, and we should realize this, and in this awareness should raise our degree of sovereignty, including our economic sovereignty," he said.