Russia faces recession as oil crash and sanctions cost economy £90bn The Russian economy could plunge into a fresh recession, Anton Siluanov, the country's finance minister, has warned. "We are losing around $40bn [£26bn] per year due to geopolitical sanctions and we are losing some $90bn [£58bn] to $100bn [£64bn] per year due to oil prices falling 30 pc," Mr Siluanov said in a speech in Moscow, reported by RIA Novosti news agency. In early November he said: "The obvious reason for the decline in global oil prices is the slowdown in the rate of [global] economic growth which means consumption is being reduced in a whole range of countries." In addition to this, "a political component is always present in oil prices. Furthermore, at some moments of crisis it starts to feel like it is the politics that prevails in the pricing of energy resources," he added.