Baltic States – CIS, Direct Speech, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Russia

"This is ridiculous. I do not wish to talk too much about it, however, all those "anti" statements – regardless of whether they are anti-Russian, anti-Jewish, anti-Latvian, and the like – are complete idiocy. I am extremely annoyed by this, it is some kind of a Dark Ages attitude," said Aven.

In commenting on the relations between the West and Russia, the businessman said: "I am no politician, so I do not wish to comment much. But, of course, this is not the best period in our relations, and I hope that it will end soon. Business is suffering because of this. We are performing business activities in both Russia and the West, and we want very much that relations between countries be normal. (...) I believe that there is definitely a wish [to improve relations], however, there is also a huge lack of mutual understanding, as one side has a poor grasp of the other one. Over the last several years, I believe, there has been no normal mutual dialogue. With regard to maintaining contact and dialogue, the importance of business is neglected as well. There are many myths, insults, emotions, which lead to a conflict, although I believe that a conflict is less governed by rational arguments than emotional arguments."

"I believe there are many illusions on both sides. What matters is that we, business owners, have always advocated the idea that counter-productive sanctions against private businesses threaten the potential of a dialogue, do not help the country's policy in any way, and destroy the pro-Western part of Russian society," said Aven.