Putin reacts to Brexit: Nobody wants to feed weak economies

Putin reacts to Brexit: Nobody wants to feed weak economies

The president, who was speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tashkent, also commented on claims of British Prime Minister David Cameron - who on Friday announced his resignation - that Putin would be "happy" if his country left the EU.

"Statements made by the UK prime minister, Mr. Cameron, before this plebiscite, before this referendum, on Russia's stance, have no basis and never had. I believe that this is nothing more than a flawed attempt to influence the public opinion in his own country. As we see, it didn't even have the desired result," Putin said, adding:

"Prior to the vote in the United Kingdom and after the vote, I have already said that we have never interfered, never discussed this, we acted very properly in my opinion. Of course, we closely followed what was going on, but did not influence this process and did not even attempt to do so."

"As for the sanctions policy, I don't think that this move (Brexit) will affect our relations with the EU in this regard. We were not the ones who started these sanctions, we just responded on actions toward our country," the Russian president said, adding that he does not expect "a global disaster" in the markets.