Putin blasts sanctions on global trade

LEADER DUE AT SHANGHAI SUMMIT TODAY

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On the eve of a visit to China, Russian leader Vladimir Putin blasted Western sanctions as his country’s economy teetered on the brink of recession, wounded by trade curbs and the cost of his war in Ukraine.

Russia and China jointly opposed “discriminatory” sanctions in global trade, Mr Putin said in a written interview with China’s official Xinhua news agency published yesterday.

Mr Putin will be in China, Russia's biggest trading partner, from today to Wednesday in a four-day visit that the Kremlin has called “unprecedented”.

The Russian leader will first attend the two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. The security-focused SCO, founded by a group of Eurasian nations in 2001, has expanded to 10 permanent members that now include Iran and India.