The world’s largest energy producer is out of its longest recession in two decades Russia has exited recession, with a little help from the boys in uniform, a major statistical revision – and the global oil price. And not just any recession, but its longest in two decades. So what happened? 1. Is the economy really out of the woods? Actually, the contraction ended a few quarters earlier than previously estimated, according to revised calculations by the Bank of Russia’s research and forecasting department. The Federal Statistics Office hasn’t released a quarterly growth figure since 2015, so that’s not an official, official number. The central bank had thought that quarterly growth turned positive only in the second half of last year. Now it seems Russia has been in the black since the first quarter of 2016. Part of the reason for that is a reclassification of military spending . […]