Is Russia’s economy really on its last legs?
The head of Swedish military intelligence has dropped what he clearly regards as a bombshell. Thomas Nilsson told the Financial Times this week that Russia’s economy is far weaker than it appears, that the Kremlin systematically manipulates its statistics to fool Ukraine’s Western allies, and that the central bank is understating inflation, which he believes is closer to 15 percent than the official 5.86 percent. For good measure, he endorsed the German intelligence service BND’s earlier estimate that Russia’s budget deficit is understated by $30 billion. One need not be a Kremlin agent to find this less than convincing. That Russia’s economy is struggling is not in dispute. It lives on a mortgaged future
