World crisis showing no signs of ending ? Medvedev

"There are many factors at present influencing the world financial situation. The situation is very uncertain: to tell you frankly, our downslide is continuing. I mean the world economy in general and Russia as part of the global economy," Medvedev said at a meeting with deputies of regional municipal bodies in Tula on Wednesday. "It is unclear how long the crisis will last. Obviously, we must prepare ourselves for more difficult times, but also assume that this crisis can help us resolve a number of problems, which we have inherited, Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS. "The crisis has multidirectional trends which show that the world economy is moving not only downwards, but makes other movements, that have been uncertain so far," the Russian president said. As an example, he cited the situation with City Bank. "Once a bank shows decent results ? as was the case with City Bank yesterday ? we see stock indices post growth the world over today," he said. The head of state underlined that the situation might seem far-fetched, yet "it makes certain influence on how we feel." "If these are the symptoms of the beginning of stabilization, which we'd like to believe, it is good; if it is an accidental phenomenon, the crisis will continue its progress," Medvedev said, stressing that Russia would be watching the world financial economic system and respond to it. He reminded "we've drawn a budget with deficit for the first time, and give up three-year budget planning in favour of planning for one year, because we're unable to see that far in these difficult conditions." Nevertheless, Russia has prepared for the crisis, Medvedev stated. In his opinion, in 1998, when "the crisis was not so deep and only hit Russia, the situation in the country was more dramatic with respect to non-payments, the population's incomes and so on. The current situation is different, we must keep it," the head of state stressed.