President Vladimir Putin is under pressure to show he has a prescription to cure Russia’s rapidly growing economic ills in his annual state of the union address on Thursday.Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, sharp falls in global oil prices and the rouble’s slide against the dollar culminated in an acknowledgement by government officials this week that Russia will enter recession next year.Putin’s popularity ratings are sky high and he has not faced any big protests over the economic decline, but questions are being asked about whether he has a plan to pull the $1.4 trillion economy out of crisis.”The …read more
Source: AsiaOne
