Rysslands ekonomi går åt skogen, men detta räcker förmodligen inte för att vinna kriget i Ukraina. Samtidigt uppstår en koalition av villiga i Europa:The Telegraph skrev:Russia's people face "incredible poverty" following Western sanctions in response to Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, according to the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff said the country is headed towards being a new Cuba, Venezuela or "a giant Iran". Mr Rogoff also said the West needs to think about imposing secondary sanctions on the Kremlin.
[...]
He acknowledged that "getting regime change is hard", citing the examples of Cuba, Venezuela and Iran, but said "that is where Russia is headed".
[...]
At the same event, Valdis Dombrovskis, European commissioner for trade, said: "We need to stay the course [on sanctions]. "Sanctions are working. Russia's economy was in recession last year and is going to be in an even deeper recession this year."
[...]
The war in Ukraine had also created “new coalitions in Europe”, crediting the Baltics, Poland, Czech, Slovak, Dutch and the UK with leading the way on the European response.
Varför är inte Sverige med?Ukrainska Pravda skrev:Defence ministers and representatives from nine European countries signed the Tallinn Pledge during a meeting on Thursday. It includes the commitment to provide further military assistance to Ukraine against the background of its war with the Russian Federation.
A joint statement was signed by the defence ministers of the UK, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, as well as representatives of Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Analysis: Russia's falling oil revenues could create vicious circle for budget, rouble
Därmed är Rysslands överskott under fjolårets första elva månader helt utraderat:Reuters skrev:Russia's finance ministry and central bank said last week they would restart interventions in foreign exchange markets for the first time in almost a year, selling 54.5 billion roubles worth of yuan ($793 million) from the National Welfare Fund. The sales started on Jan. 13 and will run for three weeks.
[...]
Russia posted a 3.3 trillion rouble deficit in 2022, equivalent to 2.3% of GDP - one of its worst performances since President Vladimir Putin came to power over two decades ago.
Finance minister Anton Siluanov said in December that the price cap imposed on its oil could mean Russia's budget deficit is wider than current plans for 2% of GDP in 2023. Government officials have also publicly said they would like to see a weaker rouble - something the foreign currency interventions seem likely to prevent.
[...]
State-owned bank Sberbank estimates that if the average price for Russia's Urals blend was $55 per barrel, and the rouble continued trading around 67 against the U.S. dollar, the government will be required to sell $1.5 billion - or 100 billion roubles - of foreign exchange holdings every month to cover the gap.
Vågar Putin försvaga den symboliskt viktiga rubeln som Biden tidigare kallade "rubble"?The Telegraph skrev:The fiscal gap reached a record 3.9 trillion roubles ($56bn) last month, according to Bloomberg calculations based on preliminary government data released on Tuesday.
That brought the full-year shortfall to about 3.3 trillion roubles, reversing a surplus in the 11 months of the year.