French Finance Minister on Economic Sanctions Against Russia

BRUNO LE MAIRE, FRENCH FINANCE MINISTER: The aim of the economic sanctions is quite clear. We want to inflict severe damages to the Russian economy and to the Russian financial system. That’s why we have decided, first of all, a total freeze of all the assets of the Russian Central Bank. This means not far from 1,000 billion dollars that will be freezed by the decision taken by both the European countries and the United States. And the United States and the European countries stand together vis-a-vis Vladimir Putin and vis-a-vis the aggressive behavior Vladimir Putin. The second decision that we have taken is also to freeze the assets of all the oligarchs. And I think that it will be also very efficient against the power of Vladimir Putin. And the third set of decisions that we have taken is on some of parts of the Russian economy, on some strategic assets, on some technological devices. On all those points, we stand very firm, and we stand united. And the goal, once again, is to inflict severe damages to the Russian economy.

AMANPOUR: You’re the finance minister, severe damages, you actually said to collapse the Russian economy, and to enact a war against Russia’s economy and its financial system.

LE MAIRE: We just want to say stop to Vladimir Putin. We don’t want to use weapons. We don’t want to have any kind of military intervention. But we have the economic and the financial power. And we are totally determined to use all the economic and financial powers that we have in our hands. And when you are looking at the current situation, sanctions prove to be effective. Sanctions are effective. Let’s have a look at the situation of the ruble. There has been a devaluation of the ruble by 30 percent. Let’s have a look at the Russian markets. There has been a decrease on the Russian market by 30 percent. Let’s have a look at the risk of having bank runs in Russia. We are already inflicting severe damages to the Russian economy, severe damages to the Russian financial system. And we will stick to the climb, which is a very strong one, for the view of making understand our determination to say stop to Vladimir Putin.