French minister declares economic 'war'
on Russia, and then beats a retreat
By Richard Lough
PARIS (Reuters) -French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire declared an "all-out economic and financial war" against Russia to bring down the its economy as punishment for invading Ukraine, before rowing back on language he later said was inappropriate.
The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on Russia's central bank, oligarchs and officials, including President Vladimir Putin himself, and barred some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire described the sanctions packages as proving "extremely effective".
"We're waging an all-out economic and financial war on Russia," Le Maire told France Info radio. "We will cause the collapse of the Russian economy."
Le Maire later told French news agency AFP he had misspoken and that the term "war" was not compatible with France's efforts to de-escalate tensions surrounding the Ukraine conflict.
"We are not in a battle against the Russian people," the minister added.
In a matter of weeks, Russia has turned from a lucrative bet on surging oil prices to an uninvestable market with a central bank hamstrung by sanctions, major banks shut out of the international payments system and capital controls choking off money flows.
On Tuesday, Russia said it was placing temporary curbs on foreigners seeking to exit Russian assets, putting the brakes on an accelerating investor exodus driven by the sanctions.
Le Maire's initial remarks drew an angry riposte from Russia's former president and prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
"Watch your tongue, gentlemen! And don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones," Medvedev tweeted.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland, Sudip Kar-Gupta and Richard Lough; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Nick Macfie)
A top Russian official appeared to threaten France with 'real war' after the French finance minister said Western sanctions would 'cause the collapse of the Russian economy'
France's finance minister said Tuesday that Western sanctions would cause the Russian economy's collapse.
A top Russian official responded immediately, saying that economic wars often turn into "real wars."
The West has leveled sweeping sanctions against Russia that appear to be disrupting its economy.
A top Russian official appeared to threaten France with "real war" on Tuesday as he responded to saber-rattling comments from the French finance minister about the effects of punitive Western sanctions.
In an interview with French radio on Tuesday morning, Bruno Le Maire said the West aimed to "cause the collapse of the Russian economy" through an "economic and financial war on Russia," for which the Russian population "will also pay the consequences."
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former prime minister and now deputy chairman of its security council, was quick to respond on Twitter.
He said: "A French minister said today that they have declared an economic war on us. Watch what you say, gentlemen! And don't forget that in the history of mankind, economic wars have often turned into real wars."
Western nations including France have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, targeting everything from its central bank and leading financial institutions to President Vladimir Putin himself.
The sanctions seem to have already disrupted the Russian economy. On Monday, the value of the ruble crashed by as much as 30% against the US dollar, forcing Russia's central bank to more than double its base interest rate to 20%. Meanwhile, Russians were pictured at ATMs trying to withdraw foreign currency.
In the interview with France Info on Tuesday, Le Maire said that economic and financial sanctions leveled by the West against Russia were "extremely effective," adding: "I don't want to leave any ambiguity about the determination of Europe on this subject. We are going to wage an economic and financial war on Russia."
He continued: "We want to target the heart of the Russian system. We'll target Vladimir Putin. We'll target the oligarchs. But we'll also target the entire Russian economy."
He added: "Sanctions must strike fast, strike hard, and we are already seeing the effects. The ruble has collapsed by 30%. Russian foreign-exchange reserves are melting like snow in the sun, and Vladimir Putin's famous war chest has already reduced to almost nothing."
Le Maire said, "We are going to cause the collapse of the Russian economy."
On Monday, the US rolled out sanctions intended to prevent Putin from accessing a $630 billion foreign-exchange "war chest" he could use to prop up Russia's battered economy. The move followed analogous sanctions from the European Union and the UK.
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