When the EU and US hit Russia with fresh sanctions in 2022, many analysts expected the country’s economy to crack. Instead, Russia has shown strong GDP growth, powered in large part by a massive boost to war-related industries. Now, the effects of that boost appear to be fading. Have western sanctions finally started to bite? What would happen to Russia’s economy if the Ukraine war were to end? And how difficult might it be for the country’s economy to return to normal? To find out, the FT’s economics editor Sam Fleming speaks to Elina Ribakova. Elina is a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a non-resident fellow at Brussels think-tank Bruegel and vice-president for foreign policy at the Kyiv School of Economics.
Sam Fleming is the FT’s economics editor. You can find his articles here: https://www.ft.com/sam-fleming
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Russia moves to contain concern over banks’ bad loan exposure
Vladimir Putin’s war economy is cooling, but Russians still feel richer
Russia’s central bank speeds up rate cuts as war economy cools
There’s no money to be made in Russia
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