Russia needs oil at $78 to break even

The Russian economy will run without a deficit only if oil prices stay above the $70 per barrel mark by 2017, Russia's finance minister said Tuesday.

Low crude oil prices and tight economic sanctions imposed in response to Russian policies in eastern Ukraine are pushing the nation's economy to the brink of recession, prompting economic planners to act to erase the economic decline.

"It's written in the anti-crisis plan that we will conduct a careful budget policy and by 2017 we have the goal of a non-deficit budget with a forecasted price for oil at $70 per barrel," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Tuesday.

The Russian currency, the ruble, was trading near historic lows Tuesday at 66 per U.S. dollar. That, and a Russian economy that depends on oil and gas for more than half of the government's revenue, is putting the Kremlin on its heels.

Siluanov said he's expected to run a short- to mid-term budget deficit of about 2 to 3 percent.

In December, the World Bank said it expected Russia's real gross domestic product should contract by 0.7 percent. That forecast was based on oil priced at $78 per barrel, nearly 40 percent higher than the current price.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in mid-January said the economic situation in the country was "problematic to say the least."