MOSCOW: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia could withstand financial turmoil, which on Tuesday wiped over 11 per cent off the value of the country's main stock market.

"I have no doubt that the safety cushions established in the Russian economy in recent years will work," Putin said in televised comments. "We will act carefully and in a balanced way."

He said the finance ministry and central bank would on Wednesday pump 13.7 billion dollars (9.6 billion euros) into the financial market.

"Tomorrow we intend to more than double the amount offered to 350 billion rubles," he said. Russia's main stock markets suspended trading Tuesday in the face of massive falls as the failure of US investment bank giant Lehman Brothers sparked panic on global markets.

Trade on the benchmark dollar-denominated RTS market was halted after a fall of 11.47 per cent on the index left it 54 percent below its record close on May 19. The market did not reopen on the day.

A fall in the oil price exacerbated losses with gas giant Gazprom falling 17.2 per cent and oil firm Rosneft losing 19.12. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday told a meeting of top businessmen that "we do not have a crisis" and ordered the government to pump money into the markets.

Before the latest wave of turmoil on Wall Street, investors were selling Russian stocks on falling commodity prices, turmoil in international markets and political uncertainty, analysts said.

Increasing tensions with the West stoked by Moscow's military intervention in Georgia last month have also hit prices - the RTS has fallen more than a third since the conflict began.

Medvedev estimated last week that a quarter of the market's losses were due to the war, in part reflecting fears a stand-off with the West would hurt business.