The storm of government spending is sustaining the current state of affairs, but it cannot address the chronic problems that have long plagued the Russian economy. We are witnessing an irreversible turn toward economic stagnation.
Russia’s central bank finds itself in the firing line amid sky-high interest rates and an economy that looks headed toward recession and stagflation.
A central bank digital currency could provide Russia with an alternative to the SWIFT international payment system from which it has been cut off, but the digital ruble has a long way to go before it enters mainstream circulation.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, and by Alexander Kolyandr, a financial analyst and non-resident senior scholar at the Center for European Policy Analysis, to discuss the state budget for 2025/26 and the prospects of the Russian economy in coming years.
With a quarter of the global tanker fleet transporting Russian cargo in 2024, the so-called “shadow fleet” is neither as separate nor as obscure as might have been thought.
Washington and Brussels appear to believe making it more expensive to get around Western restrictions will fuel inflation in Russia and boost economic inefficiency.
As Russian president Vladimir Putin marks 25 years in power, spending to back his war in Ukraine is propping up the economy.
