Russia's Putin says economy can be fifth largest in the world

Reuters-Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (December 20) that Russian economy can rank fifth in the world in terms of volume and that such a breakthrough would need changing the structure of the country's economy. Speaking at his annual news conference, Putin said that Russia 'needs to enter a different league in terms of quality of economy'. Earlier in December, the World Bank said economic growth in Russia will be modest over the next two years with a possible expansion of Western sanctions and high geopolitical tension making for an unfavourable outlook. But Russia's fundamentals, including its international reserves, would help it to absorb "external shocks", it said in a regular report.