OREANDA-NEWS. Czech President Milos Zeman declared senselessness of the policy of sanctions followed by Western countries, including restrictive measures imposed against the Russian Federation.

“I have always been an opponent of not only anti-Russian, but any sanctions at all, because I consider them ineffective. The sanctions against Cuba have been in effect for 50 years. Nothing has changed, and the Castro regime continues to exist,” Zeman said in an interview with the Slovak newspaper Pravda.

The Czech president believes that if, on the contrary, foreign politicians, students, tourists and entrepreneurs traveled freely to Cuba all these 50 years, the situation in this country could be completely different. “But when you close the door with sanctions, and it is paradoxically enough, you support the regime you wanted to influence. This is called the myth of the besieged fortress. The leader of the country under sanctions becomes popular immediately,” the leader of Czech Republic explained.