- Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine and the global response to it will drastically alter Russia’s economic future, setting the country back 30 years, experts say.
- As the country’s economy collapses, the exodus of global brands will give rise to a profound shift in how middle-class citizens will make and spend their money.
- Experts say the coming period of Russian economic isolation could last at least five years, but more likely will be measured in decades.
The sweeping Western sanctions are designed to inflict maximum pain on the country’s economy by expelling it from global markets and freezing assets around the world. From the moment they took effect three weeks ago, the sanctions have opened a new chapter in Russia’s economic history.
Its financial system and currency are collapsing on multiple fronts, forcing the Kremlin to close the stock market and artificially prop up the ruble inside its borders.
Practically overnight, the country’s 40-year effort to build a prosperous market-based economy that began under former leader Mikhail Gorbachev has failed — one more casualty in President Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.