"There is always a theoretical possibility of a banking crisis in any country, under any circumstances," President of the Association of Russian Banks (ARB) Garegin Tosunyan said in response to Yegor Gaidar, a former prime minister and champion of liberal economic reforms in Russia in the early 1990s, who said earlier that the threat of a banking crisis in the next three or four years was a major challenge for the Russian economy.
Gaidar emphasized the risks related to the provision of large loans by state banks to government corporations and steep fall in oil prices.
According to Tosunyan, the conclusions made by the former prime minister are mainly related to the field of scientific analysis and do not point out at a real threat to the banking system.
"Being a thorough analyst, a scientist, Gaidar is sharing his conclusions, but he speaks about long-term prospects, which could be regarded as a warning," Tosunyan said.
