Moscow, November 20, 2008 – IR Summary/Reuters – The world slowdown has affected the entire globe, all countries and Russia could not be exception. While analyzing the economy of his country, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has assured his countrymen today that Russia would come up successful through the economic crisis and vowed to guide his country’s policy which shall not affect Russia as bad as thought to be.

Putin unveiled a $20 billion economic stimulus package and help for people hurt in the slowdown as he set out a long-term response to a crisis that has cut more than 70 percent from the value of Russian markets since May and hammered the rouble.

The crisis has dented confidence in the Russian economy and raised the prospect that popular discontent could, for the first time, seriously undermine the ruling double act of Putin and his protege, President Dmitry Medvedev.

Putin, who stepped down as president in May and remains hugely influential, offered assurances there would be no repeat of the economic turmoil when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1992 and, 10 years ago, when the state defaulted on its debt.

"It (the crisis) will test the mettle of every country, their ability to defend the fortunes of their citizens, the economy and the national currency. That challenge stands today in front of Russia," he told the congress of his ruling United Russia party.

He told the congress, in an upscale shopping centre near the Kremlin, that Russians were asking "a fair question: what is going to happen to us?"

"We will do everything, everything in our power ... so that the collapses of the past years should never be repeated in our country. We will do everything in our power to defend the deposits of our citizens in banks," he said. More