Russia's presidential office has admitted that tightening Western sanctions over the Ukraine invasion are leaving their mark.
"The economic reality has changed significantly," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Monday.
“These are heavy sanctions, they are problematic.
But Russia has the potential to compensate for the damage.” Russia has long had plans in the drawer to be able to respond to all possible sanctions.
"There are response plans, they have been developed and will be implemented as soon as problems arise," said Peskow.
President Vladimir Putin has called an emergency meeting to discuss the economic situation.
Central Bank President Elvira Nabiullina, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and the CEO of the major bank Sberbank, German Gref, are to take part.
The central bank has already raised its key interest rate from 9.5 to 20.0 percent in order to slow down the drastic decline in the national currency, the rouble.
"We had no reason to doubt the effectiveness and reliability of our central bank," Peskov said.
"Even now there is no reason to doubt it."
In particular, the freezing of the foreign exchange reserves of the Russian central bank by western countries had an effect.
Peskov said the sanctions imposed on President Putin himself were pointless.
Putin is "pretty indifferent," said his spokesman.
"The sanctions contain absurd claims about some assets."