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Russia is ready for possible decline in oil prices — finance minister

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that reserves from the National Wealth Fund will be used in case of falling oil prices

MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Russia is ready for a possible decline in oil prices and will finance budget spending from reserves in that case, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Thursday.

The minister recalled that on Wednesday the OPEC+ monitoring committee discussed further development of a policy regarding sales volumes on the world oil market, and no agreements have been reached so far.

"Now, oil is also one of the risks. We have created our reserves, the National Wealth Fund, which was replenished from oil revenues in the so-called 'fat' years. Many criticized us, saying that it was a 'thrift box', that the Finance Ministry was sitting on gold. But now the situation may change and we will finance all the expenses that we have accepted and for which we have obligations from this 'thrift box'," Siluanov told a lecture for students of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.