[…] President Vladimir Putin and his authoritarian regime are peddling the false narrative that the Russian economy is strong, and that its war machine is unharmed by western sanctions. This is a lie that must be rebutted. In fact, there are many signs that the Russian war economy is deteriorating. The sanctions and other measures to weaken the Russian economy are effective, but even more can be done. We must continue to increase pressure on Putin’s regime and support Ukraine.
During the Nato summit in Washington DC, western leaders reaffirmed their commitment to Ukraine’s defence. […]
While Russian GDP may be growing, the economy is increasingly geared towards the war industry, upheld by large fiscal stimulus. This is not an endless source of growth, nor a sign of a stable economy. The Kremlin’s war factories are already at maximum capacity. Unemployment has fallen to the point that there are reports that Vladimir Putin approved the replacement of imprisonment for forced labour. The tight labour market has put upward pressure on wages, while the weaker ruble increases import prices and is contributing to increasingly high inflation, despite Russian central bank efforts to fight it with high interest rates.
To finance the war, the Russian government has tapped into the liquid assets of Russia’s national wealth fund. Estimates by Bloomberg suggest it has almost halved in size since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as the country sacrifices its future prosperity to wreak havoc abroad. […]
Sanctions must be strengthened – particularly in strategically important sectors like energy, finance and technology; while the enforcement of existing sanctions must be improved. Läs artikel