mark: lilit gevorgyan, cis senior economist at ihs markit, joins us now. likely case he decides to not run, i am sure whoever comes after putin will have his approval. mark: is it too early to speculate about who the next person could be? lilit: probably it is because it is most likely that putin himself will be running. mark: in the meantime, the economy continuing to contract in the first half of the year. the pace is slow because of the the rebound inof oil prices. the long-term concerns remain, whether it is diversity, corruption, modernization. do those concerns still a hangover putin and the economy? lilit: i think they well. i have to emphasize that the current troubles, of course they were aggravated by 2014, the followed over ukraine and then crashing crude oil prices. i have to indecisive these troubles were already showing their ugly faced in 2013 because we invested, we were becoming more wary. russia were to follow through the promises, corruption, modernizing is in fact not happening. i do not think it will happen, especially now when the conf