Free Republic

Russia is facing a critical challenge to its war effort in 2025: The nation is quickly running out of cash, with financial reserves potentially running out before the end of the year, according to estimates from one European economist. Anders Åslund, a Swedish economist and a former fellow at the Atlantic Council, thinks liquid reserves in Russia's National Wealth Fund could potentially be depleted by the fall of this year. That spells trouble for the nation's military efforts in 2025, he said, given how heavily Russia has relied on its wealth fund over the last several years. Liquid reserves in...

Russia's banks have practically emptied their stash of yuan, largely because Chinese financial firms are spooked from doing business with the nation. Lenders have urged Russia's central bank to address a yuan liquidity shortage in the nation, with insiders saying that access to the Chinese currency was running dry, Reuters reported. Russia's ruble dropped nearly 5% against the yuan earlier this week, Reuters noted. The drop came shortly after Russia's finance ministry suggested the Central Bank of Russia would shrink its daily yuan sales, with central bankers selling just $200 million a day, down from the $7.3 billion sold daily...

"Russia's wartime economic boom is masking much deeper problems, according to a group of researchers. The authors of a recent article, who hail from institutions including the Yale School of Management, the Wharton School, the Carnegie Endowment, and the Kyiv School of Economics, cast a stark warning for Russia's economic situation despite the nation posting strong growth numbers since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia's economy is expected to expand another 2.4% this year, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund. However, much of that growth stems from the Kremlin's wild spending spree, and Russia's economy is hindered...

Russia's economy can't afford to win or lose the war in Ukraine, one economist says. That's because Russia can't afford the cost of rebuilding and securing Ukraine. Russia's economy is completely dominated by its war in Ukraine, so much that Moscow cannot afford either to win or lose the war, according to one European economist. Inflation is high at 7.4% — nearly double the 4% target of its central bank. Meanwhile, direct investment in the country has collapsed, falling around $8.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2023, per data from Russia's central bank. That all puts the Kremlin...

Those measures have contributed to the flight of millionaires and everyday workers, who have left the country to look for better opportunities, significantly hurting the nation's output and productivity. And though Putin has made a show of Russia's economic strength, his actions have only bought Russia more time, researchers warned. "That resilience is nothing but a Potemkin façade, sustained not through genuine economic productivity but rather through shaking down the entire country for pennies to direct towards war," Sonnenfeld and Tian said. "Putin can continue to sustain his invasion of Ukraine this way, but in doing so, continues to rip...

Russia's oil exports have plunged amid the latest round of western sanctions. According to data from Kpler, Russian seaborne oil shipments fell 16% on Tuesday. Russia's central bank has called the sanctions "new economic shocks" that could derail the economy. Russia's oil exports have plunged amid the European Union's price cap on Russian crude and the latest round of sanctions, squeezing revenues for Moscow's wartime economy. According to data from the analytics firm Kpler, Russia's seaborne oil shipments fell by 16%, or about half a million barrels per day on Tuesday this week. TankerTrackers.com, another analytics site, recorded an even...