Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that it is difficult to predict the consequences of the Middle East conflict, but according to some estimates, its potential impact could be comparable to that of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The armed conflict in the Middle East is having an increasingly tangible impact on the current situation and is causing significant damage to international logistics, production and production-technological chains, the president stressed, quoted by TASS, at a meeting of the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Putin said that "under the blows" have turned out to be entire industries related to the extraction and processing of oil and gas, the production of metals, fertilizers and many other products and goods.
“The consequences of the conflict in the Middle East are still difficult to predict with accuracy“, Putin told business representatives in Moscow.
“It seems to me that even the participants in the conflict cannot predict anything themselves, and for us it is even more difficult.“
“Nevertheless, there are already estimates that they can be comparable to the coronavirus epidemic. Let me remind you that it sharply slowed down the development of all regions and continents without exception“, he added.
Russian companies and the government should take a cautious approach when deciding how to spend the windfall profits from higher oil prices as a result of the war in the Middle East. This was stated by President Vladimir Putin, quoted by "Reuters".
The jump in oil prices has made Russia the main beneficiary of the war that the United States and Israel launched against Iran on February 28.
"Now, when the prices of our traditional exports are rising, but the markets are in turmoil, there may be a temptation to take advantage of the situation," Putin noted to business leaders in Moscow.
He indicated that this temptation could include squandering the additional revenues, paying them out as dividends to companies or, in the case of the state, expanding budget spending.
"We must remain cautious. "If the markets swing in one direction today, tomorrow they may swing in the other," Putin warned.
"A moderate degree of conservatism and a moderately conservative approach are needed, both in the corporate sector and in public finances," he insisted.