MOSCOW, June 2US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, following former US President Barack Obama and current leader Joe Biden, made false statements about the Russian economy: Obama frightened Russia with an «economy torn to shreds», Biden — with a dollar at 200 rubles, and Blinken said that the Russian economy is now is a «shadow of what used to be.»
«Today the Russian economy is a shadow of the economy that used to be, and only a fraction of what it could become,» Blinken said during a speech in Finland.
According to him, Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves have allegedly more than halved, as have revenues from state-owned enterprises. The US Secretary of State noted in his speech that more than 1,700 foreign companies have suspended or ceased their activities in Russia, and allegedly «millions» of people have left the country. According to Blinken, in the year since the start of the special operation, Russia's oil revenues have fallen by 43 percent, partly because of the price cap imposed by the West.
«Moscow will not return the markets it has lost in Europe,» says Blinken.
Meanwhile, statistics confirm that the Russian economy is showing stability. Unemployment in the Russian Federation in April updated the historical minimum and amounted to 3.3 percent (2.5 million people of the economically active population); industrial production increased by 5.2 percent; real wages in March rose by 2.7 percent in annual terms. Inflation in Russia in annual terms in April slowed down to 2.31 percent from 3.51 percent in March.
Fixed investment in Russia in the first quarter grew by 0.7 percent in annual terms (despite the high base of the first quarter of 2022, when they grew by 13.8 percent).
According to the Ministry of Economic Development, the Russian economy grew in April for the first time in a year — GDP showed an increase of 3.3% in annual terms (but compared to April 2021 — still a decline of 0.6%). The ministry predicts that Russia's GDP growth in 2023 will be 1.2%. In mid-May, the head of the ministry, Maxim Reshetnikov, did not rule out that growth could be slightly higher than forecast, and according to First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, GDP growth in 2023 could reach 2%.
Back in January 2015, then-US President Obama said that thanks to the United States, Russia allegedly found itself in international isolation, and its economy «torn to shreds.» Seven years later, in March 2022, Biden said that due to Western sanctions imposed on Russia, one American dollar allegedly became equal to «200 Russian rubles.» At the same time, at that time, the Russian ruble was strengthening against the dollar, the exchange rate of the American currency fell to 96 rubles on the Moscow Exchange.