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Geopolitical risks taken into account in budget for 2018-2020 - Audit Chamber chief

On November 24, the Russian State Duma lower parliament house passed in third and final reading the law on Russia’s federal budget for 2018 and a longer period of up to 2020

VLADIVOSTOK, November 26. /TASS/. Geopolitical risks stemming from a possible worsening of the global situation and further anti-Russian sanctions were taken into account in the draft federal budget for 2018-2020, head of Russia’s Audit Chamber Tatiana Golikova said on Sunday.

"Naturally, [possible further sanctions] are reckoned with. That is why the budget is drafted not merely for 2018 but for 2019-2020. Moderate growth in spending stems from the geopolitical situation which may force us to react rapidly," she said in an interview with the Voskrsny Vecher weekly news roundup on the Rossiya-1 television channel.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, in turn said he thought it highly improbable that Russia’s foreign gold and currency reserves could be arrested abroad as part of tougher sanctions. "If our gold and currency reserves are arrested, it would be literally financial terrorism. I don’t think it could happen. As a matter of fact, it would be declaration of a financial warfare," he said.

On November 24, the Russian State Duma lower parliament house passed in third and final reading the law on Russia’s federal budget for 2018 and a longer period of up to 2020. According to Siluanov, the social and defense sectors and support to the national economy will account for most of the 2018-2020 budget spending. It was also reported that the government had drafted the budget proceeding from gradual lowering of oil prices after the OPEC+ deal in over in March 2018.

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