The current share of the public sector in the Russian economy is quite reasonable at the moment, Russian President Vladimir Putin believes.
The head of state recalled that less than half of Russia’s 20 largest companies were partly state-owned.
"The question is not whether they are private or public. The question is how they work," Putin told TASS in an interview for the project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin."
"If they are effective, profitable, and generate public revenues, then the question is whether privatization should be the overall goal at all," the Russian leader said, adding that such partly state-owned giants as Rosneft, Gazprom, Tatneft and Sberbank were Russia’s largest taxpayers.
Putin disagreed with speculations the state had stepped up its involvement in the economy lately. "This is not true," he said, adding that there are different assessments regarding the state's involvement in the economy. "Different methodologies lead to discrepant results," the president noted.
