NOVO-OGARYOVO, December 24. /TASS/. Russian authorities managed to prevent a critical economic contraction and protected people during the pandemic, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the government on Thursday.

"We prevented a critical contraction," he said, adding that the leading areas were kept as "certain systemic measures supporting almost all sectors" were developed.

"The main thing is that we managed to solve the issue of protecting people overall," the president noted.