Putin Calls for End to Use of Sanctions and Criticizes U.S. in Afghanistan

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called on Friday for an end to the use of punitive financial and economic sanctions around the world, saying they should be “excluded from the international economic vocabulary.”

Mr. Putin, whose country has been battered by sanctions over its policies in Ukraine, called for the swift lifting of all such measures against Iran once a deal is reached to regulate Iran’s nuclear program.

He spoke to reporters at a gathering of heads of state in Ufa, Russia, for meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the so-called BRICS group — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — of rising economic powers.

By mentioning Iran in his remarks, Mr. Putin sought to place his criticism of sanctions in a broader global context. But it was impossible not to hear his remarks as a pointed complaint about Russia’s own economic travails.

The United States, the European Union and other nations, including Canada and Japan, have imposed sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea and its involvement in the continuing conflict in eastern Ukraine. Many important Russian businesses have been cut off from Western capital markets, and some of Mr. Putin’s closest associates have had their international business dealings severely restricted.

The instrument of sanctions, Mr. Putin said, “should not be used in world economics because it turns it upside down.”

He added: “We all should live in normal, natural conditions. Only in this case will we be able to ensure stable, balanced and safe development.”

Mr. Putin’s position on the sanctions against Iran differs sharply from that of the Obama administration, which has called for a more gradual lifting of the sanctions, tied to Iran’s compliance with the emerging agreement on its nuclear program. Negotiators in Vienna were still at work on the nuclear deal on Friday, and Mr. Putin said at his news conference that he hoped it would be completed soon.

In addition to his remarks on sanctions, Mr. Putin sharply criticized the American-led war effort in Afghanistan, telling Asian leaders that a decade of Western military intervention had failed to improve security there.

“The deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan, where a 10-year presence of the international military contingent has not brought any qualitative improvement of the situation, raises serious concern,” Mr. Putin said in his speech to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s annual meeting. President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan was among those in attendance.

“The situation is aggravated by the growing activity of the so-called Islamic State, a terrorist organization striving to extend its influence,” Mr. Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.

Russia had shown some support for the American-led military effort in Afghanistan. For years, it allowed supply shipments along a route of more than 3,200 miles through Russia and former Soviet states in Central Asia, known as the Northern Distribution Network. But the Kremlin withdrew permission in May for NATO to use that route, and Mr. Putin’s remarks on Friday were a new, tougher assessment of the alliance’s legacy in Afghanistan.

Though the coalition’s combat operations in the country ended formally on Dec. 31, about 10,000 American troops remain, and the worsening security situation there has delayed plans for further withdrawals.

Afghanistan has observer status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, whose full members are Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India, Iran and Pakistan are expected to become full members within the next year or so.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/11/world/europe/putin-criticizes-us-role-in-afghanistan.html?_r=0