Putin ally Chemezov says West risks global war over Ukraine

[August 21, 2024]  By Guy Faulconbridge and Gleb Stolyarov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Sergei Chemezov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, says the United States and its Western allies risk triggering a global war if Washington continues to "provoke" the conflict in Ukraine and allow Kyiv to attack Russian territory.

His remarks to Reuters offer a rare insight into thinking in Putin's inner circle following a surprise Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region, to which the president has promised a "worthy" response but has not yet said what that will entail.

Chemezov, CEO of the Rostec corporation which supplies many of Russia's arms for the war, said Russia felt confident and had enough weapons more than two years into what the Kremlin calls its special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine.

He reiterated the Kremlin's position that the conflict is a battle between the West and Russia.

"In a situation where the West, led by the United States, provokes war, we must be ready," Chemezov said in written responses to an interview request. "The third year of the special operation is under way – Russia feels confident."

He said no one would provide a time frame for when the war might end, and accused the U.S. of stoking the conflict by supplying weapons to Kyiv and allowing strikes deep into Russia.

"The further it goes, the greater the risk that the world will be drawn into a global conflict. It looks strange, but Western countries do not seem to understand just how fraught this is for them."

The comments by Chemezov, a former KGB general who served with Putin in East Germany before the Soviet Union collapsed, were sent to Reuters after the incursion began.

Putin said last week Russian forces would eject Ukrainian troops from Russian sovereign territory but they remain inside Russia.

He said in June he could deploy conventional missiles within striking distance of the U.S. and its European allies if they let Ukraine strike deeper into Russia with long-range Western weapons.

Putin casts the conflict in Ukraine as part of an existential battle with a declining and decadent West which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence, including Ukraine.

The West, which has supplied Kyiv with large amounts of weapons, rejects Moscow's interpretation of the war and regards it as unprovoked land grab by Russia.

Moscow says the West was involved in planning for Ukraine's attack on the Kursk region. Western powers, which want to avoid direct military confrontation with Russia, have denied this and say Russia has stoked the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with CEO of Rostec state corporation Sergei Chemezov in Moscow, Russia July 30, 2024. Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

ECONOMIC WAR

Chemezov, 71, was placed under U.S. and European Union sanctions after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

He said it was a "myth" that there were empty shelves in Russian shops because of sanctions and increased defense spending.

"Go to any Russian hypermarket and see for yourself – everything is fine with 'butter'," he said. "Russia has enough "canon'. We have increased the production of weapons many times over."

Sanctions have destroyed supply chains, forcing Rostec to shift deadlines for the Yakovlev MC-21 airliner and to replace about 40 imported elements in the Superjet-100, but none of this is fatal for Russia or Rostec, he said.

Rostec's headcount will rise by tens of thousands this year, he said, describing the departure from the Russian market of Western companies such as Boeing and Airbus as an "opportunity" for Rostec for which wanted to say "thank you".

"We have passed the main stress. We managed to extract advantages from the situation and draw the necessary conclusions. One of them is: no more joint business based on trust with Western countries," Chemezov said.

Russia is the world's third largest arms exporter after the U.S. and France although its share of the global market fell in 2023 because of the war in Ukraine, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Chemezov said defense companies would continue to make a significant contribution to Russia's economy even after the conflict in Ukraine.

Weapons exports have declined, but there are signs of significant delayed demand from abroad, he said, partly due to the fact that Russian weapons had been proven on the battlefield in Ukraine.

"Our partners are sympathetic and ready to wait," Chemezov said, without naming them. "There is already a considerable queue on the 'waiting list'."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Gleb Stolaryov, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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