“The main feature of this “Straight line” with Russian President Vladimir Putin — that he looks into the face of the existing in-country issues, emphasizes the military power of the Russian Federation, with a lot of confidence coming to the government. Impressive that Vladimir Putin calms people understand his hardships,” said in an interview with Xinhua Li Wenhua, researcher of the Institute of Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Chinese Academy of social Sciences.
Thursday held the 15th on account of the “Straight line” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. For nearly four hours the head of the state answered more than 70 questions. During the “Straight line” Putin, as before, continues to demonstrate his sense of humor and wisdom at the same time not evading direct answers to questions about the country faced the challenges of economic development and establishing relations with the United States.
Noting that the recession in the Russian economy is overcome, and the country has moved to a period of growth, Putin said: “we Have three quarters of consecutive economic growth, GDP growth. Modest, but, nevertheless, from quarter to quarter.” According to him, the unsolved problems in the Russian economy remains its poor structure and low productivity.
In 2014, testing the influence of low for a long time the world oil prices and Western sanctions, Russia’s economy is facing great difficulties. Against this background, the Russian government two years in a row developed a crisis management plan. Speaking in early June at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg international economic forum, Putin said that the growth of investment in Russia exceeds the growth of GDP, and this suggests that Russia’s economy is entering a new phase of growth.
If Junhua noted that sanctions by the West’s impact on Russia, including in the field of investment, high and new technology, but the country helped import substitution, a rich harvest of grain and its export. “Cold winter the Russian economy has gone but spring has not yet come”, says Lee Junhua.
According to her, the economic problems of Russia at the current stage was caused by the economic structure based on resource-based industries, and excessive financial liberalization. “In the beginning of Putin’s rise in world oil prices enabled the Russian economy to develop rapidly, however, as a significant fall in oil prices made itself felt, the problem of structural deformation of the economy. In addition, since a fairly large share of the economy accounted for by the military-industrial complex, the economy is relatively difficult to transform into market and civil,” — stated the expert.
Foreign Professor, Moscow state University, research associate, Center for European studies at the Chinese political and law University Wang Saova in turn, noted that the Russian economy for a long time is dependent on energy exports. According to him, in terms of Western sanctions, Russia has already recognized the need for an early optimization of economic structure, however, significant jumps in economic restructuring cannot be achieved in the next two to three years.
During the “Straight line” everyone’s attention was also drawn to the statements of the Russian President on relations with the United States. Most recently, on June 14, the U.S. Senate approved an amendment to the bill to strengthen sanctions against Russia.
Putin said he was not surprised by new attempts of the U.S. Senate to strengthen sanctions against Russia “from scratch” and called it evidence of “the ongoing political struggle in the United States.”
“We lived under sanctions since the moment Russia started to get to his feet, and our partners feel in the face of Russia as a serious competitor,” he said, stressing that Russia does not consider America their enemy. Moscow and Washington are interested in the normalization of relations, they can negotiate and work together, including on Iran and Syria.
If Junhua believes that the US position is the most important factor in Russia’s aspiration to the status of a global power, to exaltation. In her opinion, the causes of tension in Russian-American relations are not only between countries strategic contradictions, but in the confrontation of value systems, so it will be difficult to overcome the biased attitude of the American elites towards Russia.
“Although Russia has once again shown the goodwill and expressed the willingness to defuse tensions in bilateral relations with the United States through cooperation in international Affairs, spring in relations between Russia and the United States has not yet come, their mitigation will be a long process”, —the expert believes.
