Will economic ruin – or the threat of it – be enough to see Putin compromise or even back down over his imperial plans for Ukraine?
Michael is the i's Chief Foreign Commentator. He was previously Rome Correspondent for The Independent, and has held staff jobs at The Sunday Telegraph, Express and New Scientist. He is the author of Being Berlusconi: the Rise and Fall from Cosa Nostra to Bunga Bunga.Conventional wisdom says that in the grinding war of attrition in Ukraine, even in the face of fearsome Western sanctions, time is on Vladimir Putin’s side.
has insisted she will continue Italy’s support for Kyiv if, as the polls suggest, she comes out top in next month’s election.. And in Hungary, one of the poorest EU states, food inflation alone was an annual 22.1 per cent in June. They noted that the Kremlin has promoted misleading figures on oil and gas revenues as it’s forced to sell energy to India and China at hugely reduced prices. “Russian domestic production has come to a complete standstill with no capacity to replace lost businesses, products and talent; the hollowing out of Russia’s domestic innovation and production base has led to soaring prices and consumer angst,” the Yale team concluded.
It’s generally assumed that by virtue of running a police state, Mr Putin is less concerned about the economic fall-out from the war than the leaders of Western governments, who are chosen by free and fair elections.
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