Mishustin tells Duma that Russia will adapt to sanctions by 2024

Russia’s economy will have finished adjusting to Western sanctions by 2024, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told the State Duma on Thursday, adding that the country had survived international attempts to isolate it.

After the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine last year, Moscow’s economy was hit by a wave of sanctions and the exit of major Western companies – as well as the departure of thousands of educated Russian professionals.

In a speech to Russia’s lower house of parliament, Mishustin acknowledged the damage done by the sanctions but promised a speedy recovery.

“Let’s be realistic, the external pressure on Russia is not abating,” he said.

“But we still expect the adjustment period to end in 2024. Russia will embark on the path of long-term gradual development,” he said.

Mishustin spoke a day after President Vladimir Putin hosted his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow for a meeting that highlighted their growing economic ties and projected a united front against the West.

Mishustin welcomed the “strengthening of cooperation with friendly countries, with those who share our views and values.”

Echoing Putin’s comments, Mishustin said the West’s sanctions, “unprecedented in recent history”, were aimed at ordinary Russians.

“The Russian people were the target,” Mishustin told Duma deputies, “but we survived.”

According to the national statistics agency Rosstat, the Russian economy contracted by 2.1% last year.

The International Monetary Fund expects a slight increase of 0.3% this year.

Appointed in 2020, Mishustin said his government’s priorities were to “give our soldiers all the help they need” and “to improve the well-being of citizens”.

He added that Russia’s minimum wage, currently 16,242 rubles a month (about $215), would be increased by 18.5% – above current inflation rates – from next January.