"Russos sabem: país sob ataque".
The Russian people will endure any hardship to defend President Vladimir Putin against aggression by the West even if they don't have enough to eat, the country's deputy leader vowed in Davos. "Read our history: the Russians will never give up their leader. We will tighten our belt, eat less food, suffer any privations, but if outsiders want to force changes on us, we will be united as never before," said Igor Shuvalov, the deputy prime minister. Mr Shuvalov said Russia's dispute with Europe and America goes far beyond Ukraine: "It erupted there but it could have been anywhere.
This is about the West trying to show us our place and refusing to treat us an equal. They are telling us to sit in a corner quietly." "If this doesn't change, it will be a bleeding wound for decades. People don't blame Putin because they know this is an attack against Russia," he said. Despite the hot rhetoric, he revealed that Russia is to seek urgent support from China to boost its vanishing foreign exchange reserves as the combination of sanctions and the crash in oil prices cripple the Russian economy.