Moscow:
Russia’s government has pushed the country into an economic crisis by not tackling its financial problems fast enough, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday, warning the full effects would be felt next year.
Kudrin — a darling of investors who is credited with building Russia’s $170 billion worth of sovereign wealth funds — added that sanctions over Ukraine, not falling oil prices, were primarily behind the collapse of the rouble and warned that Russia risked seeing its debt downgraded to junk status in 2015.
“Today, I can say that we have entered or are entering a real, full-fledged economic crisis. Next year we will feel it clearly,” the former minister told a news conference.
“The government has not been quick enough to address the situation ... I am yet to hear ... its clear assessment of the current situation.” Kudrin, one of few to criticise President Vladimir Putin, quit in 2011 in protest at proposals to increase defence spending.
He has since criticised Putin’s response to Western sanctions imposed following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its subsequent support for loyalist fighters.
