Russia’s economy will finish adapting to Western sanctions by 2024, Moscow’s prime minister said Thursday, saying his country had survived international efforts to isolate it.
After the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine last year, Moscow’s economy has been hit by sanctions and the exit of major Western companies – as well as thousands of educated Russian professionals.
In a speech to the Russian parliament, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin acknowledged the damage from the sanctions but promised a speedy recovery.
“Let’s be realistic, external pressure on Russia is not weakening,” he said.
“But we still expect that the adaptation period will end in 2024. Russia will start a long-term progressive development path,” he said.
Mishustin spoke a day after President Vladimir Putin hosted his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow for a meeting that highlighted growing economic ties and a united front against the West.
Mishustin welcomed “strengthening cooperation with friendly countries, with those who share views and values”.
Echoing comments by Putin, Mishustin said the West’s sanctions, “unparalleled in recent history”, aimed at ordinary Russia.
“The Russians were the targets,” Mishustin told the Duma representative, “but we survived”.
According to the national statistics agency Rosstat, the Russian economy contracted by 2.1 percent last year.
The International Monetary Fund expects a slight increase of 0.3 percent this year.
Appointed in 2020, Mishustin said his government’s priorities were to “give soldiers all the help they need” and “improve the welfare of citizens”.
He added that Russia’s minimum wage, currently 16,242 rubles a month (about $215), will be raised by 18.5 percent – above the current rate of inflation – starting next January.