Does Russia need ‘sovereign’ chocolate? A top banker and close Putin ally says enough is enough.
Andrei Kostin, the head of the state-controlled bank VTB, says Russia has “gotten too carried away” with the word “sovereignty.” He offered that assessment at a plenary session of the Bank of Russia’s Financial Congress.
Honestly, I think we’ve gotten too carried away the word “sovereignty” these days — trying to slap it on everything. I had a client actually try to tell me that making chocolate candy “sovereign” is now a national priority.
Russia cannot make equal progress in every area, Kostin said, proposing that the state direct resources only toward the highest-priority areas.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia needs full “sovereignty” and must keep strengthening it. He also regularly invokes a “sovereign economy,” which in his view means developing core industries and advanced technologies inside Russia.
Kostin is widely seen as a close ally of Putin.
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