Putin Enemy Dies Unexpectedly After Falling from a 6th Floor Moscow Hospital Window

There is something about high Moscow windows that are proving lethally dangerous for Russians who Vladimir Putin believes are his enemies. In this case it was Lukoil chairman Ravil Maganov who got too close to the edge and proved unable to survive the 6 story fall. Perhaps he should have stayed in the hospital bed — or perhaps he should not have criticized Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. You be the judge.

Russian Economy On the Brink

Economies — like people — can fall off a precipice. In this case it is Putin’s Russian economy that has begun its acceleration downward.

An in-depth analysis of key figures suggests that around 40 percent of Russia’s GDP is under threat of being lost due to businesses withdrawing, putting more than five million jobs at risk. The Russian economy is overly dependent on energy exports to Europe – which are believed to be the main source of funding for Vladimir Putin’s war machine – leaving the Russian despot facing an unaffordable war in Ukraine and domestic unrest.

The authors of the study said that media reports of the state of the Russian economy since the invasion began have relied on “increasingly cherry-picked” releases by the Kremlin, “selectively tossing out unfavourable metrics while releasing only those that are more favourable”.

Putin Ruins Rosstat By Generating Fake Statistics

The Russian economic decline is far worse than “official Russian statistics” admit. But even the fake economic data being released from the compromised Rosstat reveal the ominous downward shift toward oblivion facing Russia.

Russia’s economy has started to decline and is likely facing a prolonged period of stagnation as a consequence of Western sanctions…

While global inflation is helping Russia’s energy sector, it’s hurting its people. Much like the rest of Europe, Russians are already suffering a cost of living crisis, made much worse by the war in Ukraine.

Nechaev, who helped steer Russia through a much more dramatic economic collapse in the 1990s, is worried.

“In terms of the standard of living, if you measure it by real incomes, we have gone backwards by about 10 years,” he says.

Down the Dark Chute

The Russian Metallurgical industry is a microcosm of Russian Decline

The Ministry is now forecasting demand for iron and aluminum to halve in 2022, falling to 220−250,000 and 720−760,000 tons respectively. Roughly 97% of iron production is used in steel, so by implication the Ministry expects a collapse in construction and industrial steel consumption. Aluminum is similarly used for construction purposes, but is also affected by the collapse in automotive production — light automobile manufacture was down 61% year-on-year for H1 and has fallen so far that Uzbekistan leads the CIS in light automotive production for the year.

Falling iron ore demand implies a significant fall in domestic nickel demand. Heading into 2022, roughly 70% of nickel is consumed in the production of stainless steel. Nornickel depends on exports for its earnings, and saw its EBITDA decline 16.1% year-on-year for H1 along with its profit margins because of sanctions-related increases in logistical costs despite sky-high nickel prices. The company lacks any significant new projects in the pipeline too.

A Deep Darkness Descends

In Desperation Move Putin Shuts Major Gas Pipeline

The Nordstream 1 gas pipeline to Europe will be shut down for the time being, depriving Europe of desperately needed fossil fuels as winter looms over the horizon. Just how badly is Putin losing his bet on Ukraine? Pretty badly, if he has to resort to this kind of blackmail.

Just as the war in Ukraine is ramping up, so is the Russian economic decline ramping down. No one in Russia can explain to skeptical Russians why Putin decided to conduct a genocidal war against Ukraine at this particular time. Putin has made it illegal to call his war by its rightful name — war. He is even killing fellow Russians who criticize his bloody fateful decision, which has set Russia on the one way path to decline.

This entire fiasco is proving an utter disaster for the people of Russia, who have no choice but to kneel before the brutal dictator or risk being killed themselves. There is a person who should probably die to put an end to all the madness, and that person is the president of Russia.