Russian Economy Is Growing Despite Sanctions (according to Russian stats)

Some say Russia has been playing the numbers game, manipulating data to look good. I've waded through the latest 300-page stats report from the Russian government and found some peculiar things. These findings shed light not only on how sanctions might actually be working but also on how Russia might be adapting

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[floydreed]

A Texan living in Vladivostock. Retired and my pensions are in US dollars. So with the current exchange rate all is good.. Bought a new Chinese car, quality is not bad but paid about 50% more than what it sales for elsewhere outside of Russia. Electronics have gone up, some food has gone up as well but not that much... Parallel imports and products from Asia continue to come in so store shelves are stocked and full... If you're poor and make very little money, life is going to be expensive and hard no matter what county you live in. Thats just a fact of life.. The only difficulties I experience is getting my US dollar pensions into Russia due to the sanctions. Some banks are still on the SWIFT system if you don't mind opening new bank accounts when another bank gets shut down due to being sactioned. Traveling abroad isnt that difficult at least for me as there are direct flights from Vladivostock to a few Asian countries to include bus and train travel.. I own my house so don't have to worry about rent or a mortgage... Russia is a wonderful country and the people are absolutely the most welcoming and friendly people in the world. Absolutely love living here and calling Russia my home.

[corvuslividus]

I am a marketing analyst from Vladivostok working in logistics. Since the war has begun lots of cariers like Maersk, CMA CGM etc left the market. Thus the niche for freigh forwarding has been growing rapidly. The volume of goods importing from China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malasya and India via Russian far-eastern ports of Vladivostok and Nakhodka increased in times. The share of russian companies and fleet doubled in this market. So, here in the Far East we are quiet optimistic about the future.

[olenoid]

As a young engineer in Russia, I can say that the number of vacancies with high salaries, as well as the number of new orders, has increased several times. So far, it is difficult for us to contact salaries in the IT sector, but the gap is not as big as it used to be.

[freehck]

I'm a PE from Russia, Saint-Petersburg. IT consultant. Right before the war started I dropped my last international contract. Reoriented to Russia only: now the IT industry really feels a lack of seasoned professionals. My y/y income increased by much more than 15%, so everything's going quite well. Btw, I checked the inflation rate from Rosstat and must say it correlates to my spendings. So I tend to believe these numbers.

[SerjKorella]

my parents worked at the Renault plant, after the French left production, the domestic car industry began to be produced at the plant, it would seem that such a decision should hit production, but workers began to receive much more wages than under the French, under the leadership of Renault there were constant staff reductions, specialists were constantly dismissed, output was reduced, after after Renault's departure, the cuts stopped, they started recruiting new employees to the plant, and salaries began to rise. now there are overtime shifts, if someone needs it, then he can stay for double the rate. under Renault, this was not the case, even if you really want to stay and work, you could not do it, under Renault there was no double rate, and they did not pay extra for processing

[JJKK]

This really isn't difficult. On the day that Biden declared that the Ruble was rubble, I was predicting Russia's economy would experience an
economic boom. I made that prediction simply because I was aware that during WWII America experienced an economic boom. Why did it? Because during times of war Govt spending increases dramatically & Govt Spending is a major component of GDP. Yes, European countries that were selling to Russia stopped doing so, but the domestic Russian suppliers simply picked up most of the slack. Europe wouldn't buy Russian oil & gas, but in a world market, they just sold it to China & India, countries that did not sanction Russia.

The expectation that Russia's economy would collapse was incredibly stupid & driven by hubris. Now if the economic roles of the two blocs were reversed & it was Russia's economy that was dependent upon European oil & gas, _then_ Russia's economy would've been severely hurt by a refusal to sell to them, but in a world economy the valuable commodities Russia was supplying to Europe would simply be sold to other customers around the world. Almost all of the hi-tech chips & such that Russia has been buying from Europe & the US they simply began to buy from China & India & other countries.

The ironic result has been that sanctions that were expected to hurt Russia's economy actually hurt the sanctioning countries more. An incredible wtf example of shooting yourself in the foot...

[jrmydse]

Fun fact;- " even vladmir putin was also surprised how resillient the russian economoy was and how well its performing." Even the president is confused😂

[RaStASarik]

I live in the city of Vladimir. Over the past year, my salary has increased by about 60%. I am an IT employee and definitely there are many decent job offers in the IT job market. And of course you are right about spending money, I go to restaurants much more than other years.

[airaction]

Russia is not adapting to sanctions. Its simply following its plan to be economically fully independent

[eyyobym]

Living in the Middle Urals, I did not notice any changes for the worse in a year and a half

[davidex]

I'm an American who lives in Russia. I have noticed the prices for some things go up, especially cars and electronics. But as far as day to day stuff goes- food, entertainment, taxis, rent I feel like- I feel like I am actually getting ahead in life. This is anecdotal, but it is my own testimony

[eseriva]

Speaking of salary, I am about 75% up, compared to the previous year, thanks to my prevoius employer closed the office and I moved to a Russian company

[spider]

You forgot to mention the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom. They have a significant influence in nuclear field all over the world. The US still buys enriched uranium from Russia massively and they've the largest nuclear energy production in the world. Even if exports of timber to Finland from Russia declined, I heard that the Russian timber industry is thriving in the Siberian region because of Chinese imports massively.

[descubridordelmundos]

As Russian working in IT I see huge demand and basically you get paid what you asked.

Our company (digital marketing and fintech) has recently presented investment strategy. CEO was jumping around so excited he was

Many IT companies banned themselves from Russian market and this is what some local companies were dreaming of.

A friend of mine works in a hotel booking software company and they are thriving because of lack of international competitors. The same with vizualization soft, databases and so on. If Russia had been like agricultural country we would have felt this sanctions much stronger.

[glenfarmer]

As a US expat from Florida who moved here 3 years ago... I saw a increase in luxury goods like cars(high end), clothes and electronics.. There are cheaper options locally or imported from China, My wife is Russian and We saw increases in our income(I have my own Restaurant- Alona is a Accountant) She's 10% up, I'm up 30%, I have 10 employees they also earn 15% more excluding overtime which has also increased drastically... Our expenses remain a bit higher though but still living costs is very cheap compared to Florida especially food, Utilities, transport etc We live in Sochi Southern Russia... PS your right Tourism has exploded, But it's mostly Russians and also a spike in Chinese tourists.. I have 0 complains at this pace I would most likely expand... PS the real big boom is still coming that's during winter, We have the best climate in Russia during winter.. Thanx for the report...

[emmanuelgabion]

Call it authoritarian or a murderous regime all you want, but Russia has incredibly competent bankers and economic managers. Considering that they only shifted to capitalism a few decades ago, and now face sanctions hitting them left and right while waging a war, they still managed to stabilize the country.

[bigdikdude]

Russian from Kaliningrad region. Working for international company that kind of left Russia, but not really. Kaliningrad is notoriuos among for having higher prices for certain things comparing to other regions.

I get paid somewhere around 60-70k.
Apartment spendings including electricity 6000-7000
Internet 600
Food barely 10k a month.
Fuel 2000 a month (I dont drive much anymore) so sometimes that number can be even less.

Quoting the infamous intervew of Gattuso: "Sometimes may be good, Sometimes may be shit"

Edit: forgot to mention that my spendings did not increase nor decrease. More at the same since Feb24, 2023

[hotrodjones]

Having lived in Moscow (8+ years) and now back in North Carolina USA I can say I've seen inflation in both countries, but it feels worse here in the US. I sure hope this all ends soon. I feel the latent Russophobia here despite not being Russian, but just having strong ties to the country. I'm already missing the place, my home away from home.

[timomarieshely]

As a documentary maker myself I am very impressed by the immensity of the work you are doing … all this for free I do not know how you can maintain this paste! 😳