"Coca-Cola and toilet paper are disappearing": Putin's war becomes a burden for Russians

Created: 2022-11-25 05:07

By: Franziska Schwarz

Moscow expects a budget deficit in the Ukraine war.

The residents themselves have felt this for a long time - and react to it very differently.

Moscow/Munich - This Thursday (November 24) the Russian parliament predicted a deficit in the national budget.

"Familiar goods are disappearing, such as Coca-Cola or toilet paper," said a 34-year-old Muscovite shortly before the US broadcaster CNN.

But a lack of soft drinks is probably not the main problem in the country.

“There is almost no planning horizon.

Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow or in a year,” the young woman continued.

You can get used to the lack of goods, which is "not the worst".

But she is angry about the Western sanctions against Moscow in the wake of the Ukraine war: "I don't see how this is supposed to solve the conflict," she told CNN.

"The measures affect ordinary citizens who do not decide."

Empty window displays in a supermarket in St. Petersburg.

© Maksim Konstantinov/Imago

According to the official Lower House website, Duma leader Vyacheslav Volodin said: "The budget was the most difficult in recent years: sanctions and the development of the world economy make it practically impossible to predict."

Russia sanctions in the Ukraine war: "The first wave of panic has subsided"

Sergei Javoronkow from the Russian Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy is clearer.

The mood among the population is "more critical than ever before," he told CNN.

Firstly because of the rising cost of living, secondly because of the trigger for the Russian attack, which "will not be solved" in the foreseeable future, he told CNN.

"We were told we were winning," he recalled, despite recent recaptures by Ukrainian forces.

"However, economists are now realizing that if the fighting continues, we cannot hope for anything," Yavoronkov continued.

The country is now officially in recession.

The Kremlin is currently selling the idea of ​​compensating for the lack of Western goods from its own production - or by importing them from China or Iran.

Nevertheless, there are other opinions among the Russian population.

"The first wave of panic has subsided," a 30-year-old Moscow PR executive told CNN.

"Many fled, but many stayed," she said, referring to the flight of many residents after the sanctions and after the partial mobilization announced by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

"I'm happy about everyone who stays here and supports Russia."

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In absolute figures, the planned minus in the Russian state budget for 2023 is a little less than the equivalent of 50 billion euros.

That is about two percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

GDP itself will therefore continue to decline in the coming year.

The parliamentarians have estimated the minus at 0.8 percent.

In addition to the 2023 budget, the Duma also approved preliminary budget drafts for the next two years.

Russia intends to further increase its debt in 2024 and 2025.

At the same time, however, the MPs expect economic output to increase again in the years to come.