Five Major Factors Why Russia’s Economy Is Verging on Chaos. The Kremlin’s narrative, that Russia cannot be beat due to its size, is contradicted by basic economic facts. Kyiv Post looks at numbers that indicate Russia is headed for an economic trainwreck.

9 comments

1. TL;dr article lists and discusses four interesting problems, but the conclusion fizzles with a wimpy suggestion that the next major economic shock (however soon or far in the future that might be) might be Russia’s last one… the implicit suggestion is that Russia might come apart. But notice the wimpy “might”. That means it might not, too.

2. Russia’s economy might only be 5% of Europe’s, but it’s nimble and agile.

   It can transform from octane 95 to 98 to diesel to gas.

3. From the article:

   * Steve Hanke, a professor of economics at John Hopkins University says that Russia’s real inflation is closer to 27 percent
   * Russia’s own military leaders have estimated that “20 to 40 percent of Russia’s military budget is stolen
   * Izvestia news estimating that there 4.8 million too few workers in Russia
   * The Russian Central Bank’s key interest rate, of 16 percent, attempts to help lower inflation, but at the same time saps the life out of businesses and makes commercial loans impossible
   * Russia continues to require tens of thousands of soldiers domestically to prevent insurrections and to guarantee stability
   * Russia is still heavily committed to ventures across Africa, Asia, and Latin America – meaning that not all of their military budget is spent on Ukraine.

4. We shall see, we were told at the beginning of this operation that they’re running low on supplies and whatnot and that was not true . I hope it is but hope and reality are two different things

5. The sooner the better

6. You have a piddly little economy compared to us, Mr Putin. Do you really think we can be defeated?

7. With all of Russia’s land and raw materials and all the potential, with about ten generations of honest men and women in leadership, it could be something that it has never been before and could be what it should be. In the meantime, fuck em. Kick their ass Ukraine

8. Nazi Germany’s economy was unsustainable but they kept it going longer than the Allies thought they could. I’ll believe it when Russia actually runs out of something they have to have to keep fighting.

9. All true, but largely irrelevant. Russians will continue to eat shit and smile, and Putler will still fund his war with money he literally pulls out of the ground and sells to India and China. That’s why Ukraine targeting oil and gas infrastructure is so critical to their success and detrimental to Russia. So, more drones blowing up refineries please.