The Russian president focused on domestic issues during Thursday’s phone-in Russia’s economy contracted further in the first quarter triggering a 5 per cent slide in the rouble, a day after president Vladimir Putin sought to reassure the nation that the worst of the crisis was over. Monthly statistics published on Friday showed that consumers turned even more bearish in March despite the currency’s recent stabilisation, and economists estimated that gross domestic product was likely to have shrunk by between 2 and 4 per cent in the first quarter. The figures came a day after Mr Putin spent the first hour of a marathon televised call-in show to reassure citizens over the state of the economy. “Nothing has failed and everything is working,” he said. “We have passed the peak of our problems”. Members of Mr Putin’s economic policy team have been talking up the economy for several weeks as […]