MOSCOW, June 8. / TASS /. Russia confidently passed 2020, coping with the COVID-19 pandemic better than any other crisis in post-Soviet history, President of the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations Alexander Dynkin stated while speaking at the Primakov Readings forum’s opening on Tuesday.
"If we talk about Russia, the country overcame the past 2020 better than any other global crisis in the 30-year post-Soviet history," the expert said. "We have a developed, stable market, a stress-resistant banking system. We have a high level of self-sufficiency in raw materials, energy and food."
The expert recalled that Russia’s sovereign debt stood at 17% of GDP, which was significantly less than in most foreign countries. Dynkin noted that despite all these challenges, Russia managed to re-equip its army and strategic forces "along the advanced innovative course".
"Our national innovation system was able to create one of the first and the best vaccines across the world, and then to develop a whole line of vaccines. And all that under 103 rounds of US sanctions. This has already become a structural constant of macroeconomic risks, thus our macroeconomic policy remains moderately conservative. However, in these conditions, a key task is to launch domestic consumer investment demand in order to improve living standards," the Russian expert summed up.