The Head of the Committee of Civil Initiatives and the former Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin thinks that Russia is experiencing a full-scale crisis, the peak of which has not yet been passed.

      He announced this on Monday, June 1 in an interview to “Interfax”. According to him, the decline in some industry sectors reached peak indicators of the years 2008-2009. The Head of the Committee of Civil Initiatives expects that the decline of Russia’s GDP will be greater in the second quarter 2015 than in the first one.

      “After that the situation may become better, and the decline may stop, but GDP will still show a decline statistically, as compared with the same period of last year” - Kudrin said. This year the decline in GDP will amount to about 4 percent, “that is, slightly higher than the Economic Development Ministry is planning” - he added. The “complicating factors” named by Kudrin are the price of oil and the situation in Ukraine.