Putin says Russia will fight sanctions with shift in trade and energy flows(Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would expand trade cooperation with new partners, including by sharply increasing gas exports to China, to combat Western sanctions.Russia's energy sales to the European Union have sharply fallen since the start of its war in Ukraine, as the EU moved to cut dependence on Moscow and mystery explosions shut down Russia's gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea.SOCIAL SPENDINGRussia's economy is expected to shrink by 2.5% in 2022, Putin said, acknowledging certain "difficulties" but repeating his familiar line that Western economies have suffered a boomerang effect in the form of surging inflation resulting from their own sanctions."Despite the objective difficulties of the current year, we will achieve positive results in reducing poverty, and next year we need to reinforce this positive dynamic," he said.He set a priority for the government to achieve a tangible real-terms increase in salaries next year, and said the minimum wage must be increased faster than inflation."