Western sanctions against Russia in response to its expansion into Ukraine have had an effect on the country’s economy, Russian Ambassador Alexander Darchiev admitted last week.
But they haven’t hurt nearly as much as the country’s “systemic dependence on lavish natural resource revenues,” a concept, the ambassador noted, that would not be alien to Canada.
“With the drastic fall of oil and gas prices, as well as other export commodities, the Russian economy suffered a serious blow in 2015,” he told diplomats, academics and students at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs’ Ambassadors Speakers’ Series.
Convenor Larry Lederman and Russian Ambassador Alexander …read more
Source: Ottawa Citizen
