Russia is in a relatively good position to survive the COVID-19 crisis and several months of low oil revenues. This is because of the changes it was forced to make to its monetary and fiscal management as a result of the sanctions and the previous oil price collapse in 2014. While the economy does look set to contract by between 0.5 and 1 percent, instead of the expected growth of 2 percent, Russia will avoid a financial crisis and the government has enough financial resources to fund recovery programs when conditions improve. It may not even have to scale back existing spending plans by too much or too early.
