The government of Russia calls on its citizens to tighten their belts and shows a saving’s example to follow. The country's authorities are going to cut the 2015 federal budget by 10%. The decision to reduce expenditure was not easy, but in the current situation everyone has to save, including the government – this was concluded by the officials during the meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Now, according to the new regulation, existing limits of budget commitments will be brought to ministries up to 90% of the previously planned ones. However, there are some exceptions: public standard costs and transfers to extra-budgetary funds stood aside from the cut. All in all, officials and ministers have no reasons to worry: if a law has an exception, then there is a reason to disregard it. It is noteworthy that the information about the cut came anonymously from sources who attended the meeting behind closed doors. At the same time, spokeswoman for the Russian Prime Minister Natalia Timakova said that there was no decision about a 10% cut in 2015-2017. According to her, different reactions to the world economic situation were discussed. In other words, it is not the best idea to announce a beginning of tough time right before the New Year holidays, it is better to state this on the very holidays when hardly anyone will pay attention to it. A representative from the Russian Ministry of Finance also refused to comment on the results of meeting with Medvedev, but he said that the Ministry has tried time to convince to cut spending for 2015-2017 for a long time and that a refusal of this measure would have a huge negative impact on the economy. Experts suppose that 10 pct is a sane cut minimum as in this case all public standard commitments will still be fulfilled.
