Arabic version: روسيا تقيل اقتصاديًا بارزًا بعد تحذيره من الحرب

According to Cnbc, Russia’s former chief economist at state-controlled development bank VEB, Andrei Klepach, was dismissed after comments warning that the Ukraine war could lead to a major social crisis. Exiled independent Russian outlet The Bell reported that the dismissal was directly linked to his economic assessment, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. CNBC said it could not independently verify the report.

Klepach, a former deputy economy minister, presented a report earlier this year saying Russia could not win a prolonged war of attrition with Ukraine. In a May 21 speech to fellow economists, he said Russia’s costs were mounting and predicted that the country’s economic lag would widen, even if it did not collapse economically.

Russian government officials rejected concerns over the country’s fiscal position. The Russian Embassy to the U.K. told CNBC that Russia’s fiscal position remained “significantly stronger” than that of many Western economies, citing foreign public debt of around $57 billion. A spokesperson said the economy remained resilient despite what Russia described as unprecedented foreign pressure.

Ukraine’s long-range drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and delivery warehouses have placed additional focus on Russia’s wartime economy. Analysts said slow growth masks strains including reliance on military spending, higher taxes and subsidized bank lending. Swedish economist Anders Aslund and Nigel Gould-Davies of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said Klepach’s dismissal highlighted alarm among some of Russia’s leading economic thinkers.