Russia’s economy is experiencing systemic deterioration under the pressure of its own monetary policy, structural industrial degradation and exhausted consumer demand, with no key sector offering grounds for optimism, Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service reported on April 13, citing the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The institute recorded a 1.5% year-on-year contraction of the Russian economy in the first quarter of 2026 — the worst figure since the imposition of large-scale Western sanctions. [...]