Russia Will Use Technological Development, Credit for Development Projects To Deal with Sanctions Crisis, Explains Putin

July 20, 2022 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Council for Strategic Development, and emphasized that his government will “prioritize the issues in technological development” and “quickly create mechanisms in the Russian financial system” to finance those projects.

The July 18 meeting was the Council’s regular bi-annual meeting, but it took on particular significance as Russia charts its course through the hurricane of economic sanctions. Putin began by emphasizing that “our main goal is poverty alleviation,” and he reported progress in reducing the poverty rate from 12.9% in 2017 to 11% in late 2021. He also noted that longevity was rising “towards the goal of increasing life expectancy in Russia to 78 years by 2030.”

As for the sanctions, this has led to “the near total closure of access to foreign high-tech products.... This is exactly where they are trying to put up obstacles for us in order to restrain the development of Russia. It is clear that this is a big challenge for our country. However, we are not going to give up, feel at a loss or, as some of our well-wishers predict, fall back decades. Of course not. On the contrary, realizing the enormous pile of difficulties we are facing, we will intensively and competently look for new solutions, effectively use the existing sovereign technological reserves, and develop domestic innovative companies.”

He said Russia cannot and will not isolate itself from the world. “It is impossible to draw a circle and put up a huge fence like this in today’s world; this is simply impossible.” Instead, Russia will “further develop end-to-end technologies” of its own. But a major problem has been lack of adequate credit.

“Let’s put it straight—the Russian financial system was not ready to provide resources to companies without assets or big profits even when they had good prospects for development... We need to quickly create mechanisms in the Russian financial system that can allow rapidly growing Russian companies to attract domestic capital for development. I am hoping to hear substantive proposals from the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Russia that oversee financial market operations.”

After these clear marching orders, and listening to various reports, Putin concluded:

“The issues of technological development that we discussed are not only our priority but also a basis, a foundation for implementing our strategic plans, for implementing basically all national projects. With breakthroughs in technology and a broad digital transformation, and by training experts in these areas, we can overcome any difficulty, both now and in the future and there will always be difficulties. We will overcome all of our challenges. We will set on the advanced development track. There is no other way. Therefore, I would like to ask the government and the regional teams to prioritize the issues in technological development.”