Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on Friday with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council and discussed the current economic situation in the country and the efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2020) Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on Friday with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council and discussed the current economic situation in the country and the efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"The sides exchanged views on the current socio-economic situation in the country, including issues of stabilizing the economy in conditions of serious concerns and crisis phenomena on international markets. They also discussed the work of coordinating structures to combat the coronavirus, including efforts to develop an appropriate vaccine. The president informed the participants of the meeting about his international telephone contacts this week," Peskov said.
The meeting was attended by upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko, Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, Kremlin Chief of Staff Anton Vaino, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Intelligence Service head Sergey Naryshkin, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, and Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergei Ivanov.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on March 14 that the spread of coronavirus had a stronger effect on Russia's economy than the drop in oil prices that earlier this week showed lows unseen since the early 2000s.
