Saturday, March 21, 2020

Thanks to Sanctions, Russia Is Cushioned From Virus’s Economic Shocks

Years of economic isolation and bulgingg financial reserves have positioned the country to ride out the coronavirus panic and bounce right back.


But Russia's underfunded health system could cause problems with the current Covid-19 outbreak.

Far from being a basket case, Russia enters the crisis with bulging financial reserves, its big companies nearly free of debt and all but self-sufficient in agriculture. After Russia was hit with the sanctions, President Vladimir V. Putin’s government and companies adapted to isolation and were virtually forced to prepare for economic shocks like the one hammering the global economy today.


The New York Times 


7 comments:

Matt Franko said...

They dont have a covid19 problem because they closed their borders and nobody even wants to go there in the first place...

lastgreek said...

Russians -- amazing storytellers: Lermontov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky... Chekhov!

"The Lady With The Dog" by Anton Chekhov:

https://downeytrev.podomatic.com/

Trev Downey's podcast The Great Stories is outstanding. Lovely voice for reading the story and great discussion (no academic mumbo-jumbo) afterwards with his guest Neil Poole. I've subscribed to the free podcast on my iPhone apple. Every two weeks a new short story. Never miss it :)

Ralph Musgrave said...

"But Russia's underfunded health system could cause problems with the current Covid-19 outbreak."

Depends where they allocate their resources. I gather Russians pretty much ignore the over 65s: i.e. let them die off when they get ill. So if that's all their "underfunding" consists of, maybe they'll spend as much as the West on those of working age, and thus come out of the Corona virus crisis not too badly.

Peter Pan said...

Like the Maritimes, Russia is a backwater.

S400 said...

Russsia took the hardline from the beginning where people who traveled to Russia had to be quarantined for at least 14 days. Nothing like the EU or US where the wait and see approach were first adopted which of cause didn’t work.

The other strategy which the west almost always use; the “we know best” where they won’t take advice from China how to deal with it hasn’t been successful either.

And of course the west alliance were “we look after each other” doesn’t exist at all. That is more than clear now.

Italy the country which has the worst situation saw medical supplies being sent off to the US right in the middle of the out brake.

China is sending doctors and other medical personnel to Italy and Russia has also offered to help. Meanwhile EU countries , oh the great project for peace, don’t lift a finger for each other when in need.

The looting US grabs medical supplies from Italy, well that is to be expected. The US never ever care for anybody else. I’m of course talking about the rulers and not the people.

Peter Pan said...

Senator Richard Burr decided against a "wait and see approach" when it came to his stock portfolio.

S400 said...

Richard Burr, what a guy!