Bloomberg: Some of Russia’s key employers privately doubt rosy promises by Putin and Trump

Half a dozen billionaires told Bloomberg that they question the Kremlin’s rosy outlook on Russia’s economy and are pessimistic about Donald Trump’s capacity to halt the Ukraine war and roll back Western sanctions.

In September, the Russian government forecasted three-percent annual growth, low and stable inflation, and positive macroeconomic trends through the remainder of Putin’s current presidential term. “Too optimistic,” said Bloomberg’s sources among Russia’s leading employers, who insisted that the economy’s medium and longer-term outlook is, in fact, “bleak” (albeit not a “full-blown crisis”).

One tycoon who spoke to Bloomberg faulted the Russian authorities for being too timid to acknowledge to the public that the war in Ukraine requires sacrifices (namely, higher inflation) to win. Instead, to suppress inflation and mask the invasion’s costs, the Central Bank has hiked its key rate to a record 21 percent and might go even higher. As a result, some companies find it more profitable to “stop development […] and put funds on deposit.”