VLADIMIR (Sputnik) — In January, US President Barack Obama claimed in his address to the Congress that the Western sanctions left Russia's economy "in tatters."
"If we continue to keep the finances and the budget under control, investors will see that the overall situation in the country has stabilized, despite claims that the Western sanctions would leave the Russia's economy 'tattered.'"
The Russian minister stressed the importance of developing the economic basis for import substitution. Siluanov added that Russia needed to develop an export-oriented import substitution policy to be able to sell more of its goods abroad.
According to the European Commission's estimates released in early May, the economic situation in Russia is expected to stabilize in 2016 "based on the technical assumption of sanctions expiring in July 2015 and also given the slight rebound in oil prices."
