#40 - JRL 2009-237 - JRL Home
Putin highlights main achievements of Russian government in 2009
Interfax

Vladivostok, 29 December: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called the prevention of mass growth of unemployment, rescue of the banking system and withdrawal of the country's credit system from a stupor as the government's main achievements in 2009.

"Unemployment was and is growing but the growth was not as dramatic as it could have been," Putin said during today's meeting with journalists in Vladivostok.

The second achievement, in his opinion, is the "rescue of the banking system". Putin reminded those present that during the previous 1988 crisis the country's major banks went off the market, together with people's savings. "We did not allow for this to happen," he said. "The banks that were on the verge of bankruptcy (there were five or six of them) were bought by the state for R1 each but they did not cease to exist. We are dealing with their restructuring, merger, consolidation, nobody has been left out," he said.

As a result of the crisis the credit market has been considerably reduced, he said. "But we are gradually coming out of this situation," Putin said.

He expressed hope that another reduction in refinancing rates by the Central Bank of Russia "will undoubtedly take a toll on the banking rates of financial institutions".

Asked what main downsides and minuses for Russia he saw in the past decade, he said that in particular "we were spending too much and had to do so under the pressure of the circumstances".

"In general, from the economic point of view, for example, less funding should been spent on social development and more on the diversification of the economy. But I believe that we did the right thing, having paid special attention to the social sphere," he said.

Putin said that "our citizens witnessed the collapse of the social sector as well as loss of savings, we were to bring them back something at least and restore trust in authorities".

He admitted that had the authorities acted in a different way and invested more money in the diversification of the economy, the crisis "would have been less unexpected".

"But we have begun moving proactively in this direction now. What has been done over the past years, has already allowed for the Russian economy to endure the crisis in a less painful way than in other countries," he said.

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