Friday, January 15, 2016

The Impact On Russia From Falling Oil Prices



VOA: Russia Faces Pain Over Falling Oil Prices, Sanctions

Russia’s economy is struggling at the beginning of 2016. Low oil prices and Western sanctions against Russia continue to affect the country’s economy.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev thinks the economy is looking better than one year ago. But he told a conference this week that Russia must prepare for the worst-case scenario. In such a case, conditions would worsen, not improve.

Medvedev spoke in Moscow at the yearly Gaidar Forum on economics. He noted that 2015 was probably the most difficult year for Russia economically in the past 10 years. The level of economic activity shrank 3.8 percent last year.

WNU Editor: This is how bad it has become .... Russia Must Cut Spending or Suffer Financial Crash — Finance Minister (Moscow Times). But it is this story that caught my eye .... Russia’s pensioners squeezed as recession bites (Financial Times). Pensioners is Putin's political base.... if he loses them he will not have any chance of winning the Presidency in 2018.

More News On The Impact On Russia From Falling Oil Prices

With oil prices plunging, Russia looks ahead to grim 2016 -- Washington Post
Russia starts to feel the pain of $30 oil -- CNBC
Medvedev: Russia’s Economy Must Prepare for Worst-Case Scenario -- VOA
Russia is slashing spending again due to oil slump -- CNN
Russia to cut social spending in 2016 -- RT
Russia prepares stress scenario based on $25 per barrel oil price — minister -- TASS
Russia prepares stress test as oil slides below $30 -- RT
Amidst A Deepening Recession, Russia's International Reserves Are Stable (For Now) -- Mark Adomanis, Forbes
Russia refuses to rein in oil production in 2016 -- DW
Russia Has No Plans to Cut Oil Exports Despite Falling Crude Prices -- Sputnik
Russia plans to repeat last year's oil production record in 2016 — minister -- Tass
Russia Mulls Budget Cuts and Bank Stake Sales -- WSJ
Russia Warns Against Repeating Mistakes of '98 -- US News and World Report

3 comments:

Jay Farquharson said...

WNU Editor,

Russian Pensioner's options other than Putin, are pretty bleak.

War News Updates Editor said...

Jay .... for the moment yes.

B.Poster said...

Now what the United States needs to do is help the Russians out by offering to help out with interst free loans to help Russia through this, offer tdchnical expertise to Russia to help them diversify the Russian economy at no charge to them, make it abundantly clear we oppose sanctions against Russia, and for the limited time that the US dollar remains world reserve currency we will act to pumish ANYONE who attempts to sanction Russia.

As for interst free loans to Russia or offering technical assistance to them, we are to far in debt to grant interst free loans as we simply can no longer afford it. We long since gave that option away. As for yechnical expertise, they are so far beyond us that they must find us quite funny.

We should try and help them where and when possible and feasible. Otherwise get out of their way!!

Sanctions and low oil prices are only temporary and the Russians are going to diversify and reproduce with or without us. As such, it's going to be best for us and the "West" to help them where and when feasible. I'm sure they and their leaders are well aware of this. Such knowledge could lead to extreme arrogance as it already has. Russia is not immune from a fall.

Russia is on the cusp of being the most powerful nation the world has ever known in both relative and absolute terms. They need to stay humble! !