Government came to confirm the bad news: Russia is close to stagnation and not even the future looks bright
After a speech in which he changed the record he had been playing since the start of the war, Vladimir Putin has more reason to be unhappy.
The idea was already in the air, but Russia’s deputy prime minister confirmed it this Monday, in an interview with the daily Vedomosti.
Russia will grow just 0.4% in 2026, in a brutal revision that takes away almost a percentage point from the 1.3% budgeted for this year.
Even though Russia is benefiting from what the International Energy Agency has already said is the biggest oil crisis ever, it is not performing well enough to meet the minimum standards that its government has set.
According to Alexander Novak, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will also be seriously affected in 2027. The initially projected growth of 2.8%, now revised downwards by half, to 1.4%.
In a longer term, Russia expects to grow 2.4% in the year 2029, a higher number, but one that could be seriously affected by an economy largely focused on feeding a war machine that continues to fail to justify all the bets made, especially since the gains on the front line remain residual.
Maybe it’s because of this whole scenario that Vladimir Putin’s album is playing a different tune. A song that already admits negotiations with the European Union, even though the proposed name, Gerhard Schröder, was not even considered by Brussels, as he is a known friend of Russia.
With the war finally reaching the elites and even with pro-war bloggers and influencers changing their stance in relation to this special military operation, Vladimir Putin finds himself increasingly cornered, now having in the mathematics of the economy a new enemy that is almost impossible to defeat.
