Crisis and canceled flights cost Russia $77M

In the last 3 months Russia has decreased or stopped flights to Ukraine, Egypt and Turkey, which has caused Russia, following very aggressive foreign policies in recent years, to lose $77 million. According to Russia's official news agency Tass, the vice president of the board of members of Moscow Domodedovo Airport, Denis Nuzhdin, said that the policy has resulted in Russian airports losing about $77 million. Nuzhdin underlined that half of the loss stems from the sanctions against Turkey following the downing of the Su24 jet on Nov. 24, 2015, when Russia violated Turkish airspace. Russia canceled charter flights to Turkey in December 2015.

This loss is contributing to the crisis in the Russian economy, which shrank 3.7 percent in 2015. This followed Russia's struggle with a drop in the price of its oil exports and international sanctions following Russia's actions in Ukraine.

The decline is the sharpest for Russia since 2009, when the world economy was suffering from the effects of a credit crunch and the global financial crisis. It matched recent predictions from the International Monetary Fund, which forecasts another fall of 1 percent in 2016, before a return to 1 percent growth in 2017. The Russian state statistics service said that 2015 saw a 10 percent drop in retail sales, including a 15.3 percent plunge in December against the year before, and a one-third drop in foreign trade. Oil and gas contribute to around half of Russian state revenues and the government has said it will have to make cuts to the budget for 2016, which was adopted in October and based on an oil price of $50 per barrel. Brent crude oil traded above $31 a barrel on Wednesday.

Battered by low oil prices, Western sanctions and a falling ruble, Russia is torn between the need to support its shrinking economy and its desire to preserve funds to help it navigate one of its worst downturns since Vladimir Putin came to power.