-Russia paves way for Putin’s presidency until 2036
More than 77% of Russian citizens supported the constitutional amendment to change the political system of the country and allow Vladimir Putin to be the country’s president up to 2036.
The voting process took place last week in the country at a time when the average new daily cases of Covid-19 were reported as 7,000.
According to one of the amendments voted in, Putin, who has been the president for 20 years, can again become a presidential candidate in the next elections, as his previous terms in office will be reset.
The opposition states the voting has no legal basis and argues the amendments were made to put 67-year-old Putin on a lifelong presidential path.
-Loss of Russian budget due to Covid-19 measures exceeds 1 trillion rubles
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolichev said last week that the loss of income from the Russian federal budget exceeded 1 trillion rubles due to measures taken against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Stating their plan to close the budget deficit mainly through borrowing, Kolichev said, “We can increase the borrowing amount to 5 trillion rubles this year. Due to the epidemic, federal budget spending will increase from 19 trillion to 23 trillion rubles. ”
Kolichev noted that they do not want to use the reserves of the country's National Welfare Fund because he said, “if we use the National Welfare Fund, we violate the budget rules and we will disrupt the balance in the economy.”
The Russian Ministry of Finance buys foreign currencies with oil revenues in line with the country’s fiscal policy. These foreign currency revenues are transferred to the Central Bank of Russia, and then to the National Welfare Fund. As of June 1, the fund contained 12.2 trillion rubles.
The Russian Central Bank predicts that the country's economy will shrink by between 4% and 6 % this year.