More indications that Russia's economy has stalled have come from the latest business surveys there.
Activity in the country's services sector shrank at the fastest pace in three years in July.
The services index has now fallen for eight of the past nine months.
In July, employment in the services sector fell for the first time since October 2010.
Only the transport/storage sector and hotels/ restaurants saw new business grow.
This comes only a few days after an equivalent index for manufacturing also showed the worst reading for several years.
HSBC, which carried out the surveys, called them, " very worrisome".
"In essence, it appears that the Russian economy has lost its growth engines, with neither manufacturing nor services being able to sustain overall economic growth alone anymore," said Alexander Morozov, chief economist for Russia and CIS at HSBC.
Services account for around 60 percent of Russia's economy, including public services not included in the survey.
Source: Euronews
