MOSCOW, December 7. /TASS/. The Russian economy has proved that it is capable of responding to the toughest challenges, President Vladimir Putin said at the VTB Investment Forum "Russia Calling!"

"We proved we are able to cope with the most difficult challenges. The Russian economy is efficiently dealing with attempts from the outside to restrain the development of our country. The fundamental, as it turned out, safety margin we were forming for the last twenty years became the difference," the head of state said.

The year of 2014, the period after the first large-scale sanctions against Russia, became an important stage in this process, Putin noted. "We focused at that time on consumer sector development, financial sphere strengthening, and creation of our own payment infrastructure," the President added.