Russia's Secret - Joe Blogs

[TexasTowelie]

Russia’s economic situation may be far worse than the Kremlin admits.

A new report from German intelligence suggests Russia’s real budget deficit could be more than $30 billion higher than the official figures published by Moscow.

At the same time, Russia is facing falling oil and gas revenues, a stronger ruble that is reducing tax income, extremely high interest rates and now signs that consumer spending is weakening.

Retail sales growth in January slowed to just 0.7% year-on-year, the weakest level since March 2023, suggesting the wider economy may be starting to feel the pressure.

Even rising global oil prices may not be enough to close the growing gap in Russia’s finances.

In this video we break down:

• the intelligence report claiming Russia is hiding the real deficit
• why oil revenues are falling
• how the strong ruble is damaging government finances
• the impact of high interest rates on the economy
• signs that Russian consumers are cutting back
• and whether Russia can continue funding the war at the current pace.

If the deficit really is tens of billions higher than reported, the financial cost of the war could be significantly greater than previously believed.