As most people know already, Russian economic data is completely fake and not to be trusted. How bad are things going in Russia? People can't even afford to turn on the lights. This is reminiscent of the Soviet Union days when the Soviets were stating that they were having outstanding grain yields while actual satellite photos revealed the crops to be a disaster. Normally the Soviets were begging for outside food about six months after their harvest period. Skeptical of Russia's data, some Western officials judge its economy by looking at Moscow from space https://www.businessinsider.com/satellite-photos-expose-faltering-russian-economy-sweden-2025-1 Sweden uses nighttime satellite photos to gauge Russia's economic health, said its economic minister. Elisabeth Svantesson said the inflation figures from Russia's central bank are an understatement. Images of Moscow before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine are noticeably brighter, she said. The declining health of Russia's economy is as clear as day — or night, a finance minister said Wednesday. Elisabeth Svantesson, the finance minister of Sweden, said she and her officials are skeptical of how Russia's official figures describe its economy. One measure they use instead, she said at a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, was comparing photos of Moscow by night. The lights there, she said, were darker in 2023 than in 2021, showing a capital and a nation in trouble. Business Insider found some public photos showing the Moscow skyline in the years Svantesson mentioned. Here is one from March 2021: Moscow seen from above in a March 2021 photo from the International Space Station. NASA A NASA picture of Moscow taken in 2023. NASA It's hard to make a precise comparison — the time of day and cloud cover are different. But in the 2023 image, the pools of light showing Moscow's suburbs so appear larger and more frequent in the pre-invasion image. "It's very clear that the Russian economy is definitely not as strong as Putin wants us to believe," Svantesson said. She said that Moscow's inflation is "much higher than the public figure says." Russia's most recent figure puts it at 9.5%, which Svantesson said was out of kilter with its main interest rate of 21%. She also said levels of capital leaving Russia suggested a struggling economy, as do the space photos of Moscow. "There is over Moscow, for example, a much darker picture," she said. "They're not using as much electricity," said the panel moderator, Ravi Agrawal, the editor in chief of Foreign Policy. "No, no, no. It's much darker," Svantesson said. Western countries imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in the wake of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, mostly designed to cut off the oil and gas exports crucial to its economy. The Kremlin claims it has withstood the worst potential effects of the sanctions. Per Svantesson, that vision of a strong economy is a tactic, to convince Ukraine and its allies that sanctions don't work. "We don't know," the true state of Russia's economy, she concluded. "But what we know is that his narrative and his truth is not true."
The recent U.S. sanctions take direct aim at Russia's fleet of ghost tankers and oil trade business. Indian banks block Russian oil payments after new US sanctions https://kyivindependent.com/indian-banks-block-russian-oil-payments-after-new-us-sanctions/ Indian banks has begun blocking payments for Russian oil imports following the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Russia's oil industry, according to a report from Energy Intelligence, an energy information company. The U.S. on Jan. 10 announced large-scale sanctions against major Russian oil companies and nearly 200 vessels of Moscow's "shadow fleet." Following the new restrictions, financial institutions in India began blocking payments for Russian crude, Energy Intelligence reported on Jan. 20. India's state-owned banks, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank, have exercised the most caution in avoiding U.S. sanctions. Private banks have adopted a less rigid approach, the report said. India became the world's leading importer of Russian oil following the full-scale invasion of February 2022 and subsequent barrage of Western sanctions. India accounted for almost half of all Russian seaborne crude exports in 2024. Approximately 20% of those exports originated from Surgutneftegas and Gazprom Neft, Russian oil companies targeted in Washington's recent sanctions, according to S&P Global. Sanctioned shadow fleet tankers reportedly transported 450,000 barrels of crude to India per day. Sanctioned Russian tankers that were booked before the sanctions went into effect on Jan. 10 will be allowed to unload at ports in India until March 12, the end of a U.S. grace period, an official told Bloomberg. Refineries in India have already entered agreements to buy crude from Oman and the United Arab Emirates, Reuters reported on Jan. 21, citing industry sources. The tightening sanctions prompted a sharp drop in Russian seaborne crude exports over the past week, according to Bloombirg. Since the Jan. 10 measures, dozens of tankers around the world have dropped anchor and suspended operations. According to S&P Global Commodity Insights, sanctioned Surgutneftegaz and Gazprom Neft accounted for about 20% of Russian oil exports to India, while tankers included in the sanctions "blacklists" transported 450 thousand barrels per day to the country, or a quarter of all deliveries. The Indian authorities have decided that sanctioned tankers will not be able to enter the country's ports after March 12, the date when the period set by the US Treasury Department for completing all transactions with blacklisted individuals ends. Until that date, India is ready to accept tankers loaded before the sanctions were imposed, a high-ranking official in New Delhi told Bloomberg.
Looks like the latest sanctions are causing quite a fiasco for Russia's oil business. Sanctions sticker shock: Russia’s oil shipping costs to China surge fivefold https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...ing-costs-to-china-surge-fivefold/ar-AA1xJkn0
Every day just gets worse and worse for the average Russian. "In desperation, workers are turning to so-called micro-finance organisations (MFOs) for payday loans, which come with eye-watering annual interest rates of 292%. Research reveals that MFOs accounted for a staggering 70% of all new loans issued in December, up from 47.4% the previous year." Russian economic crisis deepens as workers resort to high-interest payday loans The Russian Central bank raised interest rates late last year to a record high of 21%, in an attempt to curb spiralling inflation. The hike has significantly raised the cost of borrowing for both businesses and consumers alike. https://www.the-express.com/news/wo...an-economic-crisis-high-interest-payday-loans
ALL emerging markets saw a spike in interest rates from 2021 to now. All of them. Had little to do with Russia and war.
The sanctions wrecking ball swings through the Russian economy. Putin's Russia on brink of economic meltdown as lumber exports collapse and mining stalls Sanctions and record-high interest rates are taking their toll on Russia's economy, with the country facing a growing economic crisis. The lumber industry has lost a third of its export markets, while mining giant Nornickel's profits have crashed. https://www.the-express.com/news/wo...omic-meltdown-lumber-exports-collapse-profits