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Russia's war machine has become such an integral part of its economic engine that its military industry is likely to keep expanding even after the fighting in Ukraine ends, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The end of hostilities will not lead to a radical cut-off of military investment," wrote CSIS analysts in a report published on Thursday. Now in its fourth year, Russia's war with Ukraine continues even as Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration weathers sweeping Western sanctions. And while cracks are starting to show, the Russian economy may still be able to...

Russia is staring down a long-term economic threat that could outlast both the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions: a deepening demographic crisis. On Tuesday, Labor Minister Anton Kotyakov underscored the scale of the problem during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. "Today, according to our estimates, by 2030 we need to involve 10.9 million people in the economy," Kotyakov told Putin, according to a post from the Kremlin. Kotyakov said the number is required to replace 10.1 million people who will reach retirement age, and 800,000 new jobs. Kotyakov warned that if productivity growth falls short of the assumptions...

"Russians record a video accusing Putin of treason, demanding his resignation" Kanal13 1.66M subscribers 8-30-2024 2:30 a.m. Minutes 6:08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgnjPv8BWww

Russia's consumer sentiment hit a high in June as its wartime economy boosted spending. The sentiment index has risen since April 2022, despite the Ukraine invasion. Russia's economy grew 4% in the second quarter of the year. Economists expect this to slow. Russian consumers are spending large and feeling big about their finances. In June, Russia's consumer sentiment hit a high not seen since the 2000s, according to Levada Center, Russia's last major independent pollster. Russian consumers are on a spending spree Russia's GDP grew 4% in the second quarter of this year from a year ago. It's a slowdown...

Best quote of his explanation: "This is a situation in which the sanctions were imposed by one important sector of the world economy which then cut itself off from resources that it needs - and that's particularly true of Western Europe - in return for cutting Russia off from various things that Russia doesn't really need."

Russia's military sector is overshadowing civilian industries, a former Russian central bank official wrote in Foreign Policy. Moscow has allocated more of its 2024 budget to defense than social spending. Russia's sanctions-hit economy appears resilient as it's driven by wartime spending. Russia is spending so much on its war in Ukraine that the effort is draining resources from the rest of the economy, according to Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Russian central bank official. "Russian industry has been transformed, with defense sectors now overshadowing civilian industries," Prokopenko wrote in Foreign Affairs on Monday. Moscow's current military spending has overshadowed social spending...

Moscow has been on a drive to replace the use of the US dollar in international trade, but there are barrels of Russian oil stuck at sea due to issues with paying in alternative currencies. Shipments of Russian Sokol grade crude oil to state-owned Indian Oil Corp, or IOC, have been delayed by payment issues, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two sources familiar with the matter. The seller is the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft. The problem arose because Rosneft unit selling the oil hasn't been able to open a bank account in the United Arab Emirates to receive payments...

Hundreds of thousands of Russians who fled their homeland following the country's invasion of Ukraine have resettled in neighboring countries — and are boosting their economies. The exodus of Russians started after many highly educated professionals — such as academics, finance, and tech workers — left Russia in the early days of the war, Insider's Jason Lalljee reported in March 2022. About six months later, there was another wave of departures after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilization for the Ukraine war on September 21.

The Kremlin has issued its sharpest comments about cutting off Russia's natural-gas flow to Europe via the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Monday, saying supplies wwould not resume until the "collective West" lifts sanctions against Moscow. "Problems with gas supply arose because of the sanctions imposed on our country by Western states, including Germany and Britain," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov during a conference call, Reuters reported on Monday. "We see incessant attempts to shift responsibility and blame onto us. We categorically reject this and insist that the collective West – in this case, the EU, Canada, the UK...