Putin Has No Strategy to Save Russia's Economy

Sergey Aleksashenko, Moscow Times
Russian economic indicators were equivocal enough during the first half of the year to provide space for both optimists and pessimists. Arguably the glass was half full. Arguably it was half empty.For the pessimists, GDP fell around 1 percent year-on-year, all components of the domestic demand continues to shrink, and the economy continues to be in recession, now six quarters in arow. For the optimists, the speed of decline is steadily reducing and, hopefully, in the second half of the year it might come to zero, after which the economy should start to recover — and a goodharvest will help.