"If we set more modest tasks before us, then we have risks of falling into a deeper recession than may actually occur," Medvedev said, inferring that the government may need to take on more aggressive approaches to the economic situation in Russia.
Medvedev emphasized that the government is controlling the situation.
"We will have to react quickly to many difficulties and to a greater extent will have to use manual management in many issues, which is not uncommon in our history. We did the same with the government in 2008 and 2009,"Medvedev said.
The Russian Prime Minister noted, however, that the current situation is more difficult, as in 2009 Russia "crawled out of recession with the rest of the world and now a number of countries are creating obstacles to the growth of Russian economy."
Russia is currently experiencing an economic slowdown and a rapid depreciation of the ruble amid a dramatic decline in oil prices, which accounts for a significant part of the Russian budget's revenues.
A number of senior Russian officials have said that another reason for the economic downturn is the Western sanctions imposed against Moscow over its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a televised press conference on December 18 that the country's economy would recover from the downturn eventually over the next few years. The Russian leader suggested that the situation may begin to improve in the first quarter of 2015.
