Medvedev Sees Russia Endure Longer Sanctions as Economy Adjusts

[Purveyor]

by Andrey BiryukovAnna Andrianova
8:44 AM EDT
April 24, 2015

Russia’s economy is adjusting to outside pressure and the country won’t break the grip of sanctions imposed over Ukraine any time soon, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

“Let’s face it, external conditions remain unfavorable, and we aren’t making forecasts for their rapid improvement,” Medvedev said at the Economy Ministry’s annual meeting in Moscow on Friday. “Contrary to various apocalyptic predictions, I have a feeling that, unfortunately, we’ve learned” how to operate under adversity, he said.

The government is growing more confident about the outlook after warning of a hard landing for the economy three months ago following a plunge in oil prices and mounting clashes in neighboring Ukraine. The improving sentiment is playing out in the market, with the ruble poised for a sixth week of advances as oil rebounds from 2009 lows reached in March.

U.S. and European penalties enacted over Russia’s actions in Ukraine limited access to international financial markets and spurred outflows of capital. While officials are raising expectations for a quick turnaround that may put the economy on track for growth in the fourth quarter, consumer demand is reeling as job losses and the fastest inflation in 13 years choke household finances.

The government is more upbeat than the central bank, which forecast a contraction of 1 percent to 1.6 percent in 2016 if oil prices average $60-$65 a barrel. The Bank of Russia predicts the economy will shrink as much as 4 percent this year.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-24/medvedev-sees-russia-endure-longer-sanctions-as-economy-adjusts

[Blue_Tires]

1. Meanwhile...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/workers-asked-putin-help-corruption-172204019.html
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/04/24/euro-a24.html
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2015/04/21/russian-workers-take-aim-putin-economy-exacts-its-toll/6YnsFQDrukLIJYRcxCUSbM/story.html
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/183560/tajik-employees-of-russian-base-protest-over-unpaid-wages.html
http://news.yahoo.com/russia-cuts-space-funding-economic-crisis-bites-161712359--finance.html
http://in.rbth.com/economics/2015/02/19/russia_to_fight_rising_unemployment_41509.html
http://in.rbth.com/economics/2015/04/22/russia_third_in_world_in_military_spending_-_sipri_42769.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11555574/Russian-space-centre-workers-launch-hunger-strike-after-Vladimir-Putin-promises-fail.html

[Purveyor]

2. And things are going 'swimmingly' in Ukraine? miners have flooded the government quarter....

For the last couple of days, hundreds of people who say they are miners have flooded the government quarter in the capital, Kiev, banging their helmets on the pavement, demanding the payment of salary arrears and the firing of the energy minister. Poroshenko's allies say Akhmetov has engineered the protests as part of an effort to keep control over the assets he amassed under deposed President Viktor Yanukovych.

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Ukraine is now at a crossroads in dealing with its oligarchs. It can renationalize some of their assets and hold new sell-offs, opening a Pandora's box of legal complications and accusations of selective justice. Alternatively, it can leave the oligarchs more or less alone, extracting from them a higher share of their profits and ensuring smaller businesses can compete with their empires. Poroshenko appears to vacillate between the two approaches and may be tempted to combine them, at least in the case of Akhmetov, a hated figure among the president's fiercely patriotic supporters.

Poroshenko may choose to bring down Akhmetov, forcing his company to default and regulating it into oblivion as an example to other oligarchs who might try to bend him to their will, as Russian President Vladimir Putin did with Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003, when the latter was Russia's richest man. Such an approach, however, would suggest that Ukraine is still following in Russia's footsteps. Worse, it might not succeed: By taking on one billionaire after another, Poroshenko could bring on an early parliamentary election in which the oligarchs would put up a fierce fight to empower a government inconvenient to the president.

full article: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-24/ukraine-s-president-takes-on-its-richest-man