Igor Shuvalov, Russia's liberal deputy prime minister, threw down the gauntlet to the country's powerful energy and metallobbies yesterday, saying several years of low commodity prices would help to create a more modern economy.

"The longer we have low commodity prices, the sooner we will have a new model of our economy," Mr Shuvalov told the Financial Times. "Even now people say, 'Don't worry, in a year all the prices will come up again and you'll have your annual budget completely full of money and you will carry on'. But that's not good. It's better if we have two, three, five years as a difficult period."