The Kremlin Urged Russians Not To Wait For The Lifting Of Sanctions And A Return To Pre-war Life

• 4.06.2026, 14:45

Russian citizens were "pleased" with the deputy head of Putin's administration.

Russians should not expect the lifting of Western sanctions and a return to the pre-war way of life, Putin's deputy chief of staff Maksim Oreshkin declared. "One should not expect that something old will return, that sanctions of Western countries will be lifted or something. The changes that are taking place, they are of a fundamental global nature. The world that was 20 years ago, it no longer exists, it will never exist," Oreshkin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

At the same time, he emphasized that the Western sanctions "are not related to any specific events" and called not to react to the introduction of new restrictions, but to get ahead of them. "We should already move away from this exclusively defensive model. In fact, by and large we have already largely moved away from it," Oreshkin said. For this purpose, he said, Russian business "needs to actively develop on the domestic platform" and enter the markets of other countries. The Kremlin spokesman also warned that the balance between "defense" and "attack" in response to sanctions will increasingly shift to the attacking side. Against this backdrop, Oreshkin advised to "look more optimistically ahead and talk more about opportunities," as "there are no failures in Russia's economy."