Authors

Michitaka Hattori¹;  ¹ Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University, Japan

Discussion

Since Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian economy has become increasingly tilted toward the military sector, deepening the appearance of a "war economy". This trend not only determines Russia's ability to continue the war, but also the very survival of the Putin regime. Despite the growing importance of the military sector, however, the degree of disclosure of information on these sectors is low, and the scope of the information that is made public has recently become even more limited. In this report, we will examine the extent to which official Russian data on public finances, merchandise trade, and industrial production reveal items related to the military. We then aim to get as close as possible to the real picture of Russia's war economy, despite the limitations of official statistics.