The country’s drive to free itself of its reliance on commodity exports has been “seriously impaired” as a result of the global financial crisis, Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday.

“The potential for Russia’s economy to diversify away from commodity exports and toward a greater amount of high value-added manufacturing and service activity — given the right set of policies — has been seriously impaired by the impact of the global crisis, at least during the medium term,” Jonathan Schiffer, Moody’s vice president and senior credit officer, said in a report.

(Bloomberg)