Spotlight: Putin sees rosy signs in Russian economy, ready to mend stranded ties

President Vladimir Putin Friday voiced his confidence in bringing his country out of the years-long economic plight, while showing Moscow's readiness to mend or improve years of stranded ties with some countries.

ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN SIGHT

At his annual year-end press conference held Friday in Moscow, Putin said that Russia's economy has been recovering from a decline caused by adverse global situation and Western sanctions since 2014.

The country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was expected to slow down to 0.5 percent to 0.6 percent this year from 3.7 percent in 2015, while inflation for the year was likely to reach a record low of 5.5 percent, he said.H Industrial output in 2016 was expected to rise by 0.7 percent to 0.9 percent, mainly due to an increase in certain industries, Putin said, compared with a 3.4 percent decline in 2015.

The country's budget deficit this year was expected to 3.7 percent, up from 2.6 percent in 2015, which Putin said is "acceptable" as Russia has a trade surplus of over 70 billion U.S. dollars.

He noted that the Russian government's reserve fund of 100 billion dollars and the central bank's gold and currency reserves of around 400 billion dollars provided a "good safety cushion" for the Russian economy.

REFUTING U.S. HACKING CLAIMS

When answering a question about the U.S. claims of Russian hacking behind its presidential campaign, Putin retorted that the outgoing Barack Obama's administration wanted to make Russia a scapegoat for the U.S. Democratic Party's failure in the presidential election.

"Losers always try to find others to accuse for their failures," he said, adding that by doing so, the Obama administration only demeaned itself.

The U.S. Democrats lost not only the November presidential race, but also both houses of parliament, which exposed system errors within the Obama administration, he added.

Moreover, when commenting on U.S President-elect Donald Trump's recent tweet on the need to enhance the U.S. nuclear capability, Putin said he was a bit surprised that some people in the current U.S. administration have been trying to prove that the U.S. armed forces are the most powerful in the world.

"Nobody is arguing about that," he said. "If someone is accelerating an arms race, it is not Russia."

Noting that the Russian armed forces are stronger than any potential aggressor, Putin vowed to continue to boost the country's Nuclear Triad, a set of advanced armaments consisting of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, strategic bombers and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

Putin said he agreed with Trump that the Moscow-Washington relationship is currently worse than ever, adding he stood ready to build business like constructive relations with the new U.S government as well as future leaders of the Democratic Party.

RELATIONS WITH TURKEY, UKRAINE AND EU

Noting that the recent murder of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was an attempt to undermine Moscow's ties with Ankara, Putin assured Turkey that the incident would not hurt the relations.

"We understand the importance of Russian-Turkish relations, and we will strive to develop them by all means," he said.

But he warned that there has been a "deep penetration" of destructive elements in Turkish state structures, including law enforcement organs and armed forces.

On the Ukraine crisis, Putin believed there was no alternative to a peaceful settlement through the Normandy format, which brings together Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, despite that the format has worked "in a sluggish manner."

Putin believed that relations with Ukraine that has been in a downturn since 2014 would be normalized "sooner or later," and he supported the introduction of visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens.

Speaking of Russia's ties with the European Union (EU) which has slapped a new round of sanctions on Moscow, Putin said Russia has been in talks with separate countries within the EU when it finds it impossible to deal with the bloc as a whole.

"It is business as usual today. In principle, we are satisfied with it," he said, adding Russia is interested in developing ties with Europe and it will strive towards this.

ON SETTLEMENT OF SYRIA CRISIS

The Russian leader gave credit to international cooperation, without which he said the success of the "major humanitarian action" of liberating the Syrian northern city of Aleppo could not be possible.

He said the trilateral format of cooperation among Russia, Turkey and Iran have played an active role in the process, while lauding efforts by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the United States, as well as a bunch of other countries.

The next stage of the Syrian settlement should be signing a nationwide ceasefire agreement in Syria and starting political reconciliation between the Syrian government and the opposition. Endi