A roundtable discussion entitled “The Global Financial Crisis and Its Influence on Russian Economic Development” was held at the Institute of Contemporary Development. The academician Ivan Ivanov led the discussion.
 
Participants included Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Development; Leonid Grigoriev, President of the Institute for Energy and Finance; Ivan Korolev, Assistant Director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences; Mikhail Yershov, Senior Vice President of Rosbank; as well as members of both the INSOR management board and board of trustees, academicians, political scientists, financiers and experts in international and Russian economics and energy.
 
The participants analyzed the reasons behind the escalation of the financial crisis in the United States and the world, examined the issue of the interconnectedness of the global financial system and the oil market, and discussed the effectiveness of the recent actions and proposed solutions for the stabilization of the international financial system.
 
According to the participants, the blow to the Russian economy will not be that great, but it is still necessary to prepare for a general transition of economic growth to domestic demand. In the event of a global recession, a limited slowdown in Russian economic growth in 2009 could be considered an unqualified success.
 
A number of ideas on stabilizing the Russian economy were expressed during the course of the discussion. Among them: a decrease in the regulations on reserve liabilities, an increase in the limits on the budgetary ‘surplus’ of the Russian Ministry of Finance, a one-time decrease in export duties on oil, support for the stock market, introduction of limits on the stock exchange, stricter regulation of banks, tax stimulation, an exchange rate peg, purchase of foreign assets, a moratorium on prices, and many others.
 
All participants agreed on the necessity of strengthening the financial system and government institutions in connection with the loss of confidence in Moscow as a financial center.
 
Based on the results of the discussion, a decision was made to create an expert working group to develop ideas for the stabilization of the Russian economy, and to refer the most productive ones to the Russian government.