Russia's financial system has been affected by a global credit crunch which started in the U.S. and quickly spread to Asia and Europe leading to record losses on Russia's financial markets, rising interest rates and a liquidity shortage.
"Now the situation is tense and acute, but it cannot be compared with 1998. Then we had a failure of the state, now we have a failure of the stock exchange," Sergei Dubinin said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
Russia's August 1998 financial crisis saw the ruble lose two thirds of its value in less than a month.
Dubinin said he approved of measures taken by the Russian government to curb the crisis.
He also said that the world was seeing a lack of confidence in financial systems, and people "have no will to invest in stocks."
The former top bank official warned however that the official forecast for economic growth of 6.7% in 2009 could prove wildly optimistic.
"We have a growth forecast of 7%, but next year growth may fall to 4-5%, if not 2-2.5%."
Russia's two stock exchanges, the MICEX and the RTS, did not open for full trading on Friday following considerable falls at previous sessions.
