"How #Putin Cannibalizes Russian Economy to Survive Personally

(...) It is often overlooked that Putin is funding his invasion of #Ukraine not only through marginal commodity exports or trickles of sanctions evasion but through the cannibalization of #Russia’s productive economy. As an extractive authoritarian dictator with state control over 70% of the economy, Putin will never really run out of money since he can always pull the authoritarian equivalent of finding money under the couch, or pull a schoolhouse bully act and shake down kids (i.e. oligarchs) for their lunch money at recess time."
(...)
Putin has abandoned all pretense of responsible fiscal policy, running record budget deficits, printing record amounts of money out of thin air, forcing Russian banks and individuals to buy near-worthless Russian debt, and drawing down Russia’s hundreds of billions in sovereign wealth funds, mortgaging away Russia’s future."

🔗: https://time.com/6291642/putin-cannibalizes-russian-economy/

#RussiaIsATerroristState