Kremlin Says Final Decision on Russian Economic Action Plan Still Pending

According to the Kremlin spokesman, the decision on Russia's new governmental economic action plan has not yet been made.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A final decision on Russia's new governmental economic action plan is still pending, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

"I’m not ready to say yet, especially seeing that no final decisions have been made so far," Peskov told reporters, when asked whether Kremlin was aware of Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov’s proposal to use funds from the Presidential Reserve to implement a governmental economic action plan.

The spokesman reminded that last week Russian President Vladimir Putin met with heads of the cabinet’s economic bloc and listened to their reports on various aspects of an anti-crisis plan.

"Thus, different issues are now on the agenda, they are discussed, reported to the president, but a decision has not been made yet," Peskov said.

Russia’s draft anti-crisis action plan contains 96 preliminary initiatives, estimated to cost around $6.5 billion, to support regional economies and non-financial sectors of the economy, most notably engineering.

The Russian economy is experiencing a slowdown caused by a sharp decline in global oil prices and, to a lesser extent, by Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its alleged role in the internal Ukrainian conflict – a claim the Kremlin has staunchly denied.