Medvedev: Preservation of sanctions amoral during pandemic

MOSCOW, Apr 17 (PRIME) – Maintaining sanctions during the coronavirus pandemic is absolutely amoral and irresponsible, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, told PRIME on Friday.

Previously, President Vladimir Putin said during the G20 summit that the countries should create green corridors free from wars and sanctions during the coronavirus crisis to ensure mutual supplies of medicines, food, equipment, and technologies.

“We have proposed the initiative to lift the sanctions to help the countries that suffered most. It was not about us. Sanctions help no one, but we did not mean ourselves. We’ve learned to live and to develop with these sanctions. We were speaking about the countries where the situation is tougher, the countries that are cornered, and I mean Venezuela and Iran that also have their coronavirus pandemic. But they say ‘no, let’s keep sanctions against them’,” Medvedev said.

“Let the people suffer. They have bad leaders, so we will not lift the sanctions, and whatever will happen to the people will happen….I think that it is an amoral point of view. We definitely have to move away from that.”

He also said that the tourism industry would survive the pandemic and recover. The Schengen Area will not be destroyed completely, but it will operate in a downsized regime for now, he added.

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