Business
President Predicts Harder Russian Economy
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday that Russia’s economy was hit harder than expected by the global financial crisis, but Kremlin measures helped the country avoid the worst case scenario.
Russia’s gross domestic product will drop by about 7.5 per cent this year, compared with earlier forecasts of 3 to 3.5 per cent and industrial production fell by nearly 14 per cent in the first half of 2009, Medvedev said.
I must admit that we sunk below our lowest expectations,” Medvedev told the state owned Channel One network in an interview that aired Sunday. “The real damage to our economy was far greater than anything predicted by ourselves, the World Bank and other expert organizations.”
Russia is facing its first recession in a decade, with gross domestic product down by an annual 10.9 per cent in the second quarter of the year. The recession followed a crash in commodity price, flagging foreign investment and a squeeze on credit markets.
Medvedev said that Russia faces a significant budget deficit next year that will surpass the September figure of almost 5 per cent of GDP. “But it’s not a tragedy, not a disaster for the economy,” he said.
A recent rebound in oil prices has prompted Russian officials to give upbeat reports that the recession has bottomed out and that the country will start seeing moderate growth.
Medvedev said government measures have also reduced unemployment from its peak of 7.5 million, and praised the stabilization of the ruble, which lost a quarter of its value since last summer, but regained some of its losses in the past months.
The ruble still remains under intense pressure amid talk of a potential devaluation.
Medvedev reiterated his earlier pledges to diversify Russia’s oil-dependent economy, but said it would take up to 15 years to develop stronger non-energy sectors that would account for up to 30 to 40 per cent of GDP.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.