Russia's economic problems based on political situation - expert

The Russian authorities are now discussing the country's development strategy until 2020, prepared by special experts. The strategy is supposed to be the basis of the government's economic policy for the next few years. VK asked the director of the International Institution for Political Expertise, Yevgeny Minchenko, to say some words about the situation surrounding the Russian economy.

"It's hard to tell how serious such strategies are, as the agenda is changing very rapidly. Several months ago Vladimir Putin focused on post-Soviet integration and now pays almost no attention to the initiative," Minchenko says.

The expert also underlines that even now several planks of the strategy contradict the current economic policy. For instance, the authors of the program advise the government to cut defense spending and in fact they have been increased by 20 billion roubles.

Expert of the Moscow Carnegie Center, Lilia Shevtsova, has always been saying that the 2020 strategy had no chance of being implemented, since neither the current political regime nor the economic situation would remain the same for these years.