The economic difficulties Russia has been experiencing lately should be attributed to the attempts of some forces, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday.

"To some degree, our difficulties could be tied to the attempts of the certain forces to push us toward an artificial crisis," Medvedev told a Finance Ministry meeting.

He admitted that the economic situation in Russia continued to worsen with the gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter this year falling to 1 percent.

Among the reasons he mentioned were stalled world oil and gas prices, main resources of Russian exports revenue, along with slowdown of investment activity and high volatility on global financial markets.

Still, he noted that the Russian leadership cannot ignore a political element of the economic downward trend, and the government must take it into account while drafting strategy of the country's development.

He did not elaborate which forces he has blamed for the problems.

Earlier this month, Medvedev said Russian economy was stalling due to a range of global and domestic factors, including events over Crimea which Russia has absorbed last month.

In late March, Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev warned Russia's GDP would slow down to 0.6 percent this year from 1.3 percent in 2013 should the forecast of 100-billion-dollar capital outflow become a reality.