Vladimir Putin

Russia has tough times ahead of it: the second wave of the crisis is strength, and the turbulent political events mean a clear change of political eras. President of Russia Vladimir Putin does not hide his own concern. He notes that the situation in the global economy is tense, but assures that Russia has specific anti-crisis reaction measures in play.

These measures are: subordinate loans, state guarantees, and demand and employment stimulation programs, Vedomosti newspaper reports.

Putin is convinced that Russia needs to build a whole new economy – one that is not dependent of oil prices. Minister of Economic Development Andrey Belousov also admits that investments should become the new sources for economic growth. This is why the government must significantly improve the investment climate.

The anti-crisis plan was discussed with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev two weeks ago. It consists of four parts: budget and social measures, as well as support measures for real and financial sectors. The government also plans on developing a crisis variant of the budget, in case the price per barrel of oil drops to 60 USD, and asks the President and the parliament permission to use 500 billion RUB without having to amend the budget.

At the same time, experts believe that Russia is not ready for the crisis. According to the former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, the second wave of the crisis could become much deeper and long lasting, and GDP could decrease by 3-4% in 2013, Zagolovki.ru reports.

«I believe that we are on the threshold of a new crisis, a very serious one. The problem with Greece is not resolved, and, most likely, it will never be resolved. For me, Greece’s exit from the Eurozone is practically inevitable; – Komsomolskaya Pravda cites Kudrin’s words. – By some indexes we are not prepared, we have fewer reserves now. We think we have more experience – we know what to do, we have been there once. But this new crisis will not be like the other ones, it will have its own character. We will need to observe how this new, special crisis spreads.»

The Russian authorities, who demonstrated optimism in the first half of the year, now do not deny that the crisis – is a very likely scenario. The government is prepared to meet the crisis with proven recipes from 2008 and 2009, which included state guarantees, bank stabilization, prohibition of dismissals and helping corporations. Meanwhile, experts believe that these recipes did not save the country from a record GDP reduction and did not save from the crisis. These recipes only temporarily softened the economic shock, Nezavisimaya gazeta writes.

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