YEREVAN, February 1. /ARKA/. Rafael Minasbekyan, strategic business development vice-president of ROSGOSSTRAKH Group and a member of shareholders’ board, finds a double-dip recession inevitable.

Speaking Wednesday in Novosti International Press Center, he said that this double-dip crisis would be quite severe.

“Neither European nor world or Russian macroeconomic indicators give ground for thinking that it will be possible to avoid the crisis,” he said answering ARKA News Agency’s question. “However, it will be possible to cushion it.”

Minasbekyan said that ROSGOSSTRAKH has gone through many crises for its 90 years of its activity, and it has a rich experience in resisting them.

“The remedy is simple – not to hope that the crisis will not strike at you, but to make necessary preparations for it beforehand,” he said. “We were ready for the 2008 crisis yet in November 2007. That is why our company grew and built up its share at the market amid the crisis.”

Explaining this, Minasbekyan said that in 2008, ROSGOSSTRAKH, anticipating “hysteric job cuts”, employed some 7,000 professionals. Therefore, the 2008 financial result was highest in several years.

“Any crisis brings opportunities,” he said. M.V.-0---