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Putin generally satisfied with work of Dmitry Medvedev's government

Putin also commented on the statement by the head of the Accounts Chamber, who had previously spoken about economic stagnation and insufficient GDP growth

MOSCOW, December 20. / TASS /. Russian President Vladimir Putin is generally satisfied with the work of Dmitry Medvedev's government, said he at his annual news conference on Thursday.

"In general, yes," said Putin as he answered a corresponding question. Putin also commented on the statement by the head of the Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, who had previously spoken about economic stagnation and insufficient GDP growth. President Putin did not agree with his conclusions, but he stressed that he considers Kudrin to be a reliable, good specialist, and also added that he listens to his opinion. "The growth of the economy was 1% per year for a certain period of time, when Alexei Leonidovich, was the Deputy PM of the Russian government, so can't blame the mirror for the way you look, as people say. Secondly, it is impossible to say that. I respect Alexey Leonidovich, he is my friend, a good specialist, I tend to listen to his recommendations, he is a reliable specialist, a good specialist", said Putin.

"We had recession, related to the 2009 global crisis, not our crises. We were not the cause of the global economic crisis of 2008-2009, it came to us from the outside, the decline was 7.8%,"Putin said. "Then, slowly, we were getting out from that crisis. Then, another crisis took place in 2014-2015, the collapse of the price of oil for our main types of export goods. Therefore, it cannot be taken into account mechanically (meaning the GDP growth of 1% in Russia in recent years).".