President Dmitry Medvedev reassured Russians on Sunday that steps will be taken to fight rising unemployment as the country prepares for a prolonged economic slowdown, according to AP. Medvedev announced that the government is developing programs to create jobs and is prepared to spend 44 billion rubles ($1.3 billion). Some of the new jobs may be in projects to build roads or other infrastructure, he said. Significant sums also will be spent on helping laid-off workers get new qualifications, the president said. Medvedev spoke in a television interview that he said would be the first of many, saying it was important for Russians to know what steps their government was taking to deal with the crisis and what difficulties Russia was facing. He described unemployment as the «biggest problem» causing the «greatest pain» today. Unemployment in Russia reached 7.7 percent at the end of 2008, with 5.8 million people out of work, and has been rising steadily since then. Russia is expected to slide into recession this year and is facing its bleakest economic outlook since the 1998 financial crisis, hurt by both the global credit crunch and slumping prices for oil, the mainstay of its economy. Medvedev defended the government's willingness to spend billions of dollars to support private industry as an effort to protect jobs, but said the government would monitor how the money was spent. He said the crisis would be a test for Russia's leaders, particularly in the remote regions where the country's energy resources are concentrated. «It's easy to work when there are large revenues, especially from the export of oil and gas,» Medvedev said in the scripted, prerecorded interview on state Rossiya television. «It seems you don't have to do anythingyourself, and the income drips and drips, and that's good. «But in this situation, first you have to learn how to spend money, budget money, rationally, and second you have to prove yourself as a skilled manager,» he said. The president also sought to ease nervousness over the decline of the ruble, which has lost more than 30 percent of its value in recent months. «In the Central Bank's opinion, the current exchange rate reflects the real state of our currency,» Medvedev said in the interview, which was recorded Thursday. He added that the Central Bank will intervene to prevent any sharp jumps.The Central Bank oversaw a series of gradual devaluations before announcing Jan. 22 that it would allow the ruble to drop sharply to 41 against a dollar-euro basket, implying a devaluation of almost 10 percent. But the ruble bounced back last week, including a 2.5 percent jump on Thursday, amid indications that the Central Bank was continuing to defend the currency. The ruble traded Friday at 39.1 to the basket. Market observers predicted it would fall back to 41 by early March.
