Turkey says EU plan to "punish Russia" failed

The plan to crush Russia's economy by imposing an oil and gas embargo has failed as Moscow gets a high income from the sale of fossil fuels, the Turkish newspaper Star gazete writes.

"The West's plans to put Russia in a difficult situation with the help of sanctions have collapsed under the weight of Russia's oil and natural gas revenues", the article says.

The publication notes that high profits were facilitated by: rising energy prices on the world market, increasing supplies of Russian fuel to the countries of the East and Asia, and the unwillingness of some European countries to abandon Russian imports.