But price rises in Russia are eye-watering by comparison – and just one symptom of an economy that is overheating. “Prices are rising because of the war,” Alexandra Prokopenko at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin told CNN. The military budget will rise by nearly a quarter in 2025, amounting to one-third of all state spending and 6.3 per cent of gross domestic product. Analysts don’t see the Russian economy as tumbling over a precipice but instead as a slowly gathering crisis. Russia has traditionally turned to central Asia for unskilled labor, and Putin recently suggested more foreign workers are needed.

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Persons: ” Alexandra Prokopenko, Vladimir Putin, Putin, ”, Anton Vaganov, ” Prokopenko, Natalia Kolesnikova, Vladislav Inozemtsev, Prokopenko Organizations: CNN, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, “, Reuters, Russia’s Alfa Bank, Alfa, Monetary Fund, Russia’s State Statistics Service, Getty, Central, United Nations, UK Defense Ministry, Atlantic Council Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, United States, Asia, Turkey, Russian, India, China, AFP, Moscow, Central Asia, East, South Korea, Dubai