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Elvira Nabiullina, the hawkish governor of Russia’s central bank, the CBR, is facing an increasingly loud chorus of criticism from officials and oligarchs who say her efforts to rein in inflation are stifling business. Her persistence in rising rates even as inflation is sliding out of the bank’s control highlights how policymakers have failed to balance irresolvable priorities during the war, according to senior Russian businessmen and economists.

Demand is persistently outpacing supply, and the central bank has a limited toolkit beyond high interest rates to address inflation amid low unemployment and weak productivity. Many economists forecast inflation as high as 10 per cent by the end of 2024, driven by the splurge on defence spending and a corresponding boom in the consumer sector.

At his annual press conference on Thursday, Putin acknowledged that “inflation” and “a certain overheating of the economy”, but said “the government and the central bank are already tasked with bringing the tempo down.”

Putin’s bravado while Russia maintains an upper hand on the Ukrainian battlefield masks a growing concern about how long the Kremlin can sustain the war effort, according to a former senior Russian official. “He can hang on for two or three years like this. But he knows the economy can’t grow with these interest rates. It’s a disaster.” The gloomy economic outlook might spur Putin to strike a deal to end the war at some point next year, they added. “He knows the USSR collapsed because of the arms race and economic mismanagement. He keeps saying we can’t repeat the USSR mistakes. He needs to stop the war,” the former senior official said.

Several indicators point to deep problems in the economy that the spending boom is increasingly struggling to mask, economists say. One is wage growth for unskilled workers prompted by a hiring spree in the defence sector. Some salaries rose by as much as 45 per cent in the first half of this year, according to Russian classifieds site Headhunter.

Skilled workers are also in short supply. Russia faces a shortage of 1.5mn highly skilled workers, particularly in construction, transport and utilities, deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said earlier this month.

Last month, the US blacklisted Gazprombank, Russia’s main conduit for energy exports and one of the few lenders not already under western sanctions. The listing closed one of Russia’s few open windows to the global economy and the Swift payment system, forcing importers and exporters into increasingly complex and expensive workarounds to transact internationally. The economy was “overheated because huge commissions for middlemen” involved in these transactions were increasing the price of “everything”, said a person involved in international payments. “There’s nothing you can do about it, and it’s a huge problem for the economy.”

Dr. Spitzbart bekommt Ärger

Dr. Spitzbart bekommt Ärger wegen Impfgegner-Fakes - Volksverpetzer

Ups, ich hab den Impfgegner Spitzbart verpetzt und jetzt hat er ein Disziplinarverfahren. Hier der Faktencheck seiner falschen Aussagen.

^{Martin Moder (Volksverpetzer)}