Economic|Russian invasion
Billionaire Oleg Deripaska estimated at the beginning of the year that Russia was running out of money. However, Russia has managed to create new trade relations and invest in domestic production.
Russia has survived the economic sanctions imposed by the West surprisingly well, billionaire Oleg Deripaska tells Financial Times in an interview with the magazine.
Russia has responded to sanctions and attempts at economic isolation by creating new trade relations with the global south and investing in domestic production. At the same time, according to Deripaska, the private sector has proven to be stronger than expected.
“I was surprised that private companies were so flexible. I was more or less sure that up to 30 percent of the economy would collapse, but the number is much less.”
“Of course, there is war spending and all kinds of government aid and subsidies, but the slowdown is still surprisingly slow… the private sector has found ways to operate and operate successfully.”
An oligarch says that Asian countries in particular have put their faith in him that the global south is resisting the pressure to join the West’s embargo. According to him, this is Russia’s straw man.
“You know these people have to feed a billion people every day and you’re asking them to commit [pakotteisiin] or to suffer. People who thought this excellent mechanism would put pressure on authoritarian regimes made a big mistake.”
Yet in March, Deripaska predicted that the Russian coffers were running out of money.
“There will be no more money next year,” Deripaska said at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum at the time, according to the news agency Bloomberg and Reuters.
“We need foreign investors,” he continued.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Deripaska describes sanctions as a tool of the 19th century and said that he always doubted the functionality of the wonder weapon, or Wunderwaffe in German.
“We don’t see it being effective in the 21st century.”
In the past, Deripaska has been one of the few oligarchs who have even offered some kind of criticism towards Russia’s full-scale war. However, he has become less vocal about even these veiled criticisms recently, though he says he still sees “no value” in the war.
In December the Moscow court ordered Deripaska to seize the giant hotel Imeretinski in Sochi. According to the Financial Times, these were the first shots of forced nationalizations.
According to Deripaska, continued fighting will only lead to increased losses and casualties, as well as human suffering. Ukrainians have referred with a glove to the oligarch’s proposed “genuine negotiations” to end the war, as they feel that they give legitimacy to Russia’s illegal territorial occupations.
“Believe that the sanctions will stop [soda] or facilitate regime change or somehow bring us closer to the end of the conflict – – No. We have to have another solution.”
The recovery and vitality of the Russian economy has been a matter of pride for the president to Vladimir Putin. He boasted about it last week, saying that “the recovery phase of the Russian economy is over.”
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Russia’s gross domestic product will grow by 1.5 percent this year and 1.3 percent next year. Putin, however, brought up tougher readings, because according to him, growth of 2.8 percent will be seen this year.
#Russian #attack #Oligarch #Deripaska #Russian #economy #withstood #sanctions #surprisingly
