Putin vows to prevent a 'collapse' in Russia

Thu Nov 20, 6:18 AM

MOSCOW (AFP) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday that the government would make sure that the burgeoning global economic crisis did not lead to another financial "collapse" in Russia.

"We will do everything that depends on us so that the problems of past years, the collapses of past years, will not be repeated in our country," Putin told a congress of the ruling United Russia party.

He referred specifically to the financial collapses in Russia in 1991 after the Soviet Union broke up and when the country defaulted on debt in 1998.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/081120/business/russia_politics_putin_economy