Putin’s Flatlining Economy
Protracted economic stagnation and a much higher COVID-19 mortality rate than is being officially reported in Russia mean that President Vladimir Putin cannot base his regime's legitimacy on quality-of-life improvements. This suggests that more censorship, propaganda, and foreign adventurism are to be expected.
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PARIS – In recent weeks, macroeconomic forecasters have presented new, more optimistic global predictions for 2020 and 2021. Given the rising second wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths in much of the world, grimmer forecasts are likely to replace them soon. But even the relatively sanguine current outlooks provide little hope for economies like Russia, which was stagnating well before the pandemic.