Foreign Affairs: Russia learned economic lessons from the collapse of the USSR

“Of course, Russia is still trying to find an economic model that can ensure continuous growth and reduce dependence on resource exports.

Nevertheless, Moscow managed to gain a foothold in stable competition with the United States, ”the article says.

Experts point out that the Russian economy turned out to be not a weak point of the country, but a reliable element, thanks to which it was possible, in particular, to withstand the conditions of the sanctions imposed by the West.

According to the authors of the material, Russian politicians learned lessons from the economic situation in the USSR, as well as "the turmoil of the late Soviet experience and the economic turmoil of the 1990s."

In particular, this concerns the blow to the budget of the Soviet Union due to the collapse of the oil market in the 1980s - 1990s.

Fears of politicians about a repetition of the situation led to the creation of special funds.

“The creation of new stabilization funds shortly after Putin took office in 2000 was a direct response to these concerns.

These funds allowed Russia to build up reserves from export earnings to help it withstand the macroeconomic impact of surges in oil prices and declining export earnings, ”the report says.

As a result, Moscow has successfully restored its foreign exchange reserves, as well as assets that are less vulnerable to the imposed and possible new US sanctions.

That is, Russia has adapted to much lower oil prices and has built shock absorbers that make dependence on energy exports much less vulnerable.

Russia also learned a lesson from the USSR's dependence on imports.

The authors of the article note that when the oil shock hit in 1986, every third loaf of Soviet bread was produced using imported grain.

“Under Putin, Russia seeks to reduce its dependence on imports.

Here, too, political thinking was shaped by the experience of the late Soviet era, when a chronic inability to produce sufficient volumes of strategically important goods, including basic consumer goods such as grain, high-tech equipment, forced the country to rely heavily on imports, ”the experts wrote.

Earlier, during a meeting with participants in the Congress of Young Scientists, Putin said that almost all the tasks of import substitution in Russia have been solved, but it is necessary to continue to remain competitive.

In December, the office of United States Trade Representative Catherine Tai called import substitution in Russia a violation of WTO rules.