Russia Needs to Create Domestic Credit System to Survive Sanctions: Presidential Aide

MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia needs to establish a system of domestic credit and improve the efficiency of public administration, so that the economy could successfully develop amid Western sanctions, Russian Presidential Aide Sergei Glazyev said Tuesday.

"If we want to survive the war that is being waged against Russia, we need to create an internal system of credit, which is aimed at modernizing economic growth. To do this, we need to dramatically increase the quality, competence and efficiency of public administration," Glazyev said at the IX National Congress "Modernization of Russian Industry: Development Priorities" in Moscow.

"With the sanctions, the European countries and the United States are clearly telling us that we can no longer rely on foreign investment, so the state is the only source, which can give the necessary amount of credit to the economy. Today, the government only uses fiscal policy, and even then to the detriment, withdrawing more money from the economy than it gives," the presidential aide said.

"If we are going to lend money to the Western economy, as we did before (Russia is the donor of the world economic system, having lent more than a trillion dollars abroad), then we will not be able to solve the problems of modernization. We will not even be able to solve the problem of maintaining the current standard of living and the country's defense. It is necessary to create a domestic credit system, and we need to do it quickly," Glazyev said.

Additionally, he reiterated the need to introduce restrictions on the export of capital from Russia.

The United States and the European Union have introduced several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia, blaming Moscow for meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs. The latest restrictions, introduced in September, targeted Russia's banking, energy and defense sectors.

Moscow has responded to Western sanctions by implementing a one-year ban on certain food imports from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and Norway.