Obama says Putin presiding over ‘currency collapse’

US president Barack Obama has rejected the charge that he has been outmaneuvered by Russian president Vladimir Putin and said that Mr Putin was presiding over "a huge economic contraction" due to the Ukraine crisis.

Mr Obama, in an interview to be broadcast on CNN’s State of the Union programme, rejected the notion that Mr Putin “is the chess master and outmaneuvering the West and outmaneuvering Mr Obama and this and that and the other.”

The United States and Europe have imposed a series of economic sanctions on Russia.

“And right now, he’s presiding over the collapse of his currency, a major financial crisis and a huge economic contraction,” Mr Obama said in the interview, which was recorded on Friday.

“That doesn’t sound like somebody who has rolled me or the United States of America.”

After the European Union and United States adopted tighter restrictions on investments in Crimea this week, Mr Putin said on Saturday that he will not be intimidated by the measures. His foreign ministry has warned that it is preparing to retaliate to the sanctions.

Reuters