Barack Obama: Putin made a strategic mistake when he annexed Crimea

Sanctions against Russia will show what a great strategic mistake Vladimir Putin made when he annexed Crimea.

The President of United States Barack Obama stated that in his interview to the US National Public Radio, BBC reports.

According to him, a few months ago some people in Washington were convinced that President Putin was a genius and he had outmanoeuvred the West. "I said at the time we don't want war with Russia, but we can apply steady (sanctions) pressure working with our European partners", Obama pointed out.

Putin believed that he had outmanoeuvred all of us and he had bullied and strategised his way into expanding Russian power, Obama said. "Part of our rationale in this process was that the only thing keeping that economy afloat was the price of oil. Today, I'd sense that at least outside of Russia, maybe some people are thinking what Putin did wasn't so smart", the President emphasized.

Japan, Australia and the European Union have slapped multiple levels of economic sanctions on Russia since March this year, when Russia has annexed the Crimean peninsula after unrecognized referendum.

The ruble has slumped by 40 percent against dollar and euro, mostly due to crude oil prices falling by half in the past six months. In December the World Bank has deteriorated its forecast towards the economic state of the Russian Federation in 2015-2016. Instead of stagnation, experts now predict recession as the most likely scenario for 2015.

State spending in Russia is almost completely covered with income from oil sale, the prices on which have lost half their value in recent months.

At the same time, Western sanctions make it impossible to attract external funds to prevent financial collapse.

According to the Ministry for Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the decline in production is observed in some industries, the service sector and in agricultural branch in Russia.

Photo by Getty Images