Kudrin invited Russia to "lie under the United States"

Sanctions imposed by the United States of America against major Russian oligarchs and their affiliated companies, as well as a number of government officials and structures, painfully hit the economy Russia and its stock market. However, the reaction of those responsible for the Russian economy was surprisingly restrained.




The most optimistic was the head of government, Dmitry Medvedev, who, in a conversation with President Putin, said that the country's economy was in “absolutely stable condition.” Curious about this and other representatives of the economic bloc of the state. A “gathering” took place on the fields of the Exchange Forum, in which Anton Siluanov, Maxim Oreshkin, Arkady Dvorkovich, Elvira Nabiullina, Alexander Shokhin participated, and Alexei Kudrin was not without.

The latter, by the way, generally stated that Russia should by no means be responding to US sanctions. The ex-finance minister is confident that such a move will hit our country, while the United States will not incur any significant costs.


- said Kudrin.

Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin, in turn, described the stock market crash caused by Washington’s sanctions as a “test of macroeconomic design stability.” Anton Siluanov, in charge of Russian finance, noted that the “budget rule” can not be changed. The head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Shokhin, and Alexey Kudrin, who joined him, indicated that the key rate of the Central Bank is likely to be at 7% for the coming months. Alexander Shokhin also shared information that some pause in actions is connected with the intrigue of whether the government will raise taxes from 2019 onwards or not. In fairness, it should be noted that in view of the situation in the economy and the need to implement the “March decrees”, there is no particular intrigue about this.

It will be interesting for the patriotic part of the population to find out that Russian markets directly depend on whether the United States of America as a part of the international coalition will strike at the government forces of Bashar Assad in faraway Syria or not, as this will increase Russia's country risk and worsen the conditions for trade. All economic professionals gathered at the conference do not expect an influx of foreign direct investment, adequately assessing the inevitability of direct government intervention in the development of financial markets. In this situation, the country's GDP can grow up to 3-3,5% per year.

As for the substantive part of the speeches gathered at the Exchange Forum, all were somewhat surprised by Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who urged not to focus on secondary quotes:



The audience was surprised at the complete lack of specificity on the part of the authorized person, instead of the list of protectionist measures that the state should ensure, they said, they themselves, their lawyers and financiers ensure the stability of the companies affected by US sanctions. And this is despite the fact that the official himself admits that there are very few strong and leading companies in Russia.

The head of the Central Bank Nabiullina refused to recognize the market collapse as a crisis, in her opinion, there are currently no risks to financial stability, therefore there is no need to apply systematic measures to the regulator.

Anton Siluanov added that the Russian Ministry of Finance is not going to change the rules of the foreign exchange market due to US sanctions and will continue to buy dollars for rapidly cheaper rubles. The minister refused to support the affected companies from the reserves:



On that, a substantive discussion of assistance to the Russian economy was completed by professionals.