Unpacking Russia's Economy
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2016
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Russia's economy became mired in sanctions back in 2014. First it was those from the West as a result of Russia's involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Then, exactly two years ago this week, Russia fired back with sanctions of its own. The idea was partly to boost domestic agriculture by replacing foreign imports with Russian ones. It has helped some local cheese-makers. But many consumers are not happy with the loss of foreign goods and general spike in food prices.
We also look at the wider economic crash in Russia's economy, with the help of two experts - Alex Nice, an analyst with the Economics Intelligence Unit, and Bill Browder, CEO and a co-founder of the investment fund, Hermitage Capital Management. He was once Russia's most prominent foreign investor before falling out with President Vladimir Putin, and fleeing into exile in 2006. He is doubtful about any predictions of an economic recovery in Russia, as long as the current government remains in power.
(Photo: Vladimir Putin depicted on a traditional Russian doll. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:09.3 | Coming up, the reason Russian cheese makers are now naming their products after the president. |
| 0:16.2 | This head of cheese is named after him. I hope he comes here one day to see the results of his |
| 0:20.8 | decision to introduce counter-sactions. I didn't support him before, but I support him after |
| 0:25.3 | this decision. But Russia's economy is still mired in recession with those sanctions and the |
| 0:30.9 | effect of cheap oil. What's the solution? I don't think there is a solution because economically |
| 0:36.1 | there's no way that they can fix this problem. |
| 0:39.0 | And so he's got to basically just try to weather the storm as long as you can, |
| 0:43.4 | hope for higher oil prices or hope that the sanctions get lifted. |
| 0:47.0 | Yes, all things Russian in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:53.6 | It's two years exactly this week |
| 0:55.9 | since the Kremlin responded to a growing raft |
| 0:58.3 | of international sanctions against its political leaders and companies |
| 1:01.1 | by responding with sanctions of its own, |
| 1:04.0 | a ban on agricultural imports from the West. |
| 1:06.9 | In 2014, it was Prime Minister Dimitri Mediev, I'm sorry, who announced the decision. |
| 1:16.6 | Russia is introducing a full ban on imports of beef, pork, fruit and vegetable produce, poultry, fish, cheese, milk and dairy products, from the European Union, the USA, |
| 1:32.3 | Australia, Canada and the Kingdom of Norway. |
| 1:36.3 | Well, that ban seemed largely political at the time, a retaliation against Western sanctions, |
| 1:47.0 | which had been imposed as a result of Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict. |
| 1:51.2 | There was another aim, though, it seemed, to bolster Russia's domestic agricultural economy. |
| 1:56.6 | It was called import substitution, forcing Russian consumers to revert to Russian-made produce. |
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