MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. Russian economy will not start growing and will remain "at the bottom" if authorities do not start structural reforms, former Finance Minister, deputy chairman of the Presidential Economic Council Alexey Kurdin said on Saturday.

"We can say that ‘the bottom’ was already passed. It is most likely that we are still somewhere close though. Unfortunately, since the old economic model has expired while the new model has not been formed yet, we will remain ‘at the bottom’ even after passing this ‘bottom’," Kudrin said in the "News on Saturday" TV program.

Kudrin stressed that Russian economy now needs some decisive actions from the authorities. "I think that our economy needs certain decisiveness. We postpone important reforms. This will also serve as postponement of economic growth," he noted.

On Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia passed the bottom of the economic crisis in 2015. Russian Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev noted that Russian economy has emerged from recession over six months ago.

According to Russia’s Rosstat statistics service, the country’s GDP has decreased by 1.2% in physical terms in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period of time last year. Russia’s GDP fell by 3.7% in 2015. According to official forecasts, GDP will decrease by 0.2% in 2016 while economy starts to grow already in 2017.