"I believe Russia will not fall apart, but I am almost certain that we will arrive at a social crisis," Andrei Klepach, the chief economist of VEB.RF, was quoted as saying.

Shocking news:

Andrei Klepach, the chief economist at Russian state development corporation VEB.RF, was reportedly fired on Aug. 16, a day after Russian media widely circulated his warnings that Russia was losing its economic and technological competition with the West.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    20·
    5 days ago

    According to one of The Bell’s sources, VEB.RF head Igor Shuvalov dismissed Klepach following an order “from above.” A second source confirmed that the firing was connected to Klepach’s May remarks.

    We are falling behind. We are losing both the technological and economic competition in the world. And, as I have already said, we are losing it not only to China and the United States — in some respects, we are losing it to Ukraine," Klepach said.

    Two weeks later, the replacement guy rolls in and presumably announces that Russia is stomping China and the US economically and technologically, despite simultaneously waging a war against Ukraine. This new position, while establishing by example new limits on what it is politically-acceptable to say, does not improve matters in Russia.