MOSCOW – Russia must take extra measures to minimise the negative impact on its economy from global market turbulence due to tariffs imposed on countries around the world this week by U.S. President Donald Trump, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Trump on Thursday unveiled a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the United States and imposed higher duties on some of the country’s biggest trading partners, triggering a plunge in world financial markets and stoking fears of a global downturn.

Russia, along with Belarus, Cuba and North Korea – some of the world’s most heavily sanctioned countries – avoided additional tariffs and the Russian rouble was little changed against the U.S. dollar and China’s yuan on Friday.

Nor did it react strongly to a 2% fall in prices for oil, Russia’s main export commodity.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had escaped Trump’s punitive treatment because it had no “tangible” trade with Washington due to sanctions.

Goods trade between the two countries was $3.5 billion last year, according to U.S. figures, down from $36 billion in 2021, the year before the full-scale conflict in Ukraine began.

Peskov told reporters in a daily briefing that Russian officials were closely monitoring global markets for potential negative effects on the country’s economy.

“We see quite a high level of turbulence in international markets”, Peskov said. “We are hearing very unfavourable forecasts from various economists, including world-renowned economists, who are pessimistic about this latest news.”

He said that while the Russian economy was robust, thanks to the government’s efforts, “additional efforts” would be necessary to protect it from tariff shocks. He did not specify what those efforts would be.

“Let’s just say that with a storm like this, we need to be very careful to minimise the negative effects on our economy,” Peskov said.

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