Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska called for stopping the war in Ukraine “on both sides.”

“I don’t understand why this shouldn’t be stopped on both sides. I don’t see anyone achieving their stated goal. Will you give F-16, F-35? You know, the only goal that will be achieved is more suffering and more lives, more wounded in exchange for [moving the front] maybe 5, 10, 20, 25 kilometers to the left or to the right. Continued fighting would mean another 50,000 dead on both sides and perhaps 150,000 wounded by next year. Do you really believe that it is reasonable to make so many people suffer for another 12 months?” Deripaska told the Financial Times.

He believes that sanctions are no longer effective tools for putting pressure on “autocratic regimes.” He said he was “surprised” by the Russian economy’s resilience to sanctions.

“I was surprised that private business was so flexible. I was more or less sure that up to 30% of the economy would collapse, but the drop was much smaller. This is a surprisingly low decline. The private economy has found a way to operate and do it successfully,” he said.

The publication comments that Deripaska’s words indicate growing confidence among Moscow’s elite that Russia’s economy has remained relatively unscathed by sanctions.

“I always doubted this wunderwaffe [wonder weapon] as the Germans talked about sanctions; weaponizing the financial system as a kind of negotiating tool. We have made so much effort to make the world global in terms of trade, investment and information flows. The possibility of using sanctions is complete, it is a kind of 19th century tool. We don’t see this being effective in the 21st century. This was a serious mistake by people who thought that they could use this wonderful mechanism to put pressure on autocratic regimes,” Deripaska said.

He believes that the countries of the “global South” will not give up ties with the Russian Federation because they need its resources.