putin predictably started his "direct line" by describing russian economic successes. he reported that the economy was resilient despite external influences, growing by 8% in two years, while unemployment rate had fallen to 2.3%. he then moved on to international comparisons, saying that the russian economy is growing faster than the eu and the united states. for comparison, putin even said that russians eat more kilograms of meat per year than people in other countries so that the russian audience would believe how well they live now. putin conveniently omitted that the reason for this growth is the overheating of the economy. the russian economy has been literally flooded with money - a lot of money that goes to the defense sector and war. this caused imbalances in the economy and skewed it towards the defense sector. the record low unemployment rate is also related to the war: thousands or tens of thousands of russians are killed and wounded in the war each week, hundreds of thousands have left the country, and a large number of people are employed in the defense sector. however, this time putin had to say that there was a worrying signal in the economy - high inflation. he said that he had met with the head of the central bank elvira nabiullina yesterday. she informed him that inflation was 9.2-9.3%. there has been a lot of criticism of the central bank in russia lately. and for the first time in many years, putin publicly rebuked the central bank for inefficiency. we will see whether this will result in staff changes among the central bank's management, as experts believe that a further key rate hike in russia is inevitable.   s/1869717284232597693
Anarchist