He added that while food franchises like ‘McDonald’s can be replaced by blini [Russian pancakes], high-tech products can’t’,Nechayev’s comments drew nervous smiles but were nevertheless applauded by attendees at the Ekaterinburg financial forum.In Putin’s Russia, those who dissent against the Kremlin’s official narrative are routinely decried as ‘foreign agents’ and face arrest and imprisonment.
Addressing the audience at the forum, he pointed to Russia exceeding its budget deficit plan in the first four months of 2023 as one reason for the coming crisis. The former minister also added mass emigration, capital outflows and falling oil and gas revenues would continue to wreak havoc on the Russian economy.
Unemployment is also at its lowest rate in 30 years, and Western products withdrawn from the country have been replaced by local ones or imported through Turkey and central Asia.There are fewer unemployed Russians because thousands have fled the country, been conscripted into the military or killed in Ukraine.