Ilya Matveev Profile picture
Mar 15 16 tweets 3 min read
I have collected some thoughts on the immediate impact of sanctions on the Russian economy (a long 🧵). TL; DR: 30 years of economic development thrown into the bin. (1/16)
An obvious starting point: Russia is highly integrated into the global economy. Its share of imports to GDP (20,5%) is the highest in the BRIC group (19% in India, 16% in China, 15,5% in Brazil). (2/16)
By targeting Russia’s reserves denominated in euros and dollars and blocking access to paper currency, the West severely restricted Russia’s ability to import goods from the EU and the US. (3/16)
The EU is Russia’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 36,5% of its imports. Another 5,4% come from the US. Russia can still pay for its imports with currency that comes from current exports, however, this currency is also needed to stop the freefall of the ruble. (4/16)
Overall, financial sanctions dramatically limit Russia’s capacity to import goods. Furthermore, exports are bound to fall too. The US has already stopped importing Russian oil. The EU is still buying oil and gas from Russia, but for how long and at what volumes? (5/16)
Sanctions by logistical companies such as Maersk, excluding Russian banks from SWIFT and cutting other options for international financial transactions further restrict imports. Finally, many Western companies simply stopped exporting goods and services to Russia. (6/16)
The Russian economy is no different from any other modern economy in a sense that it is integrated in complex global supply chains. Logistics works on the just-in-time principle (so the stockpiles of foreign-produced components are very limited). (7/16)
Restrictions on imports will destroy Russian productive capacity in most spheres. Many factories (even those that are Russian-owned) stopped production because they lack foreign components. (8/16)
They might retain the workforce, waiting for the renewal of imports, but if this doesn’t happen in a few weeks or months, dramatic spike in unemployment is guaranteed. In addition, some of Russia’s productive capacity is directly organized by foreign capital. (9/16)
The number of employees in foreign and mixed-ownership firms in Russia is 5 million (some 10% of the workforce in formal employment). Many of these companies are currently suspending activities or leaving Russia altogether, leading to the severe crisis of unemployment. (10/16)
Of course, because of economic linkages, unemployment will be cascading further and further.

All in all, no other economy in the world has experienced anything like this – extreme de-globalization in a matter of days. (11/16)
It is impossible to adapt to this situation. Nationalizations of Western companies, even if they happen, do not guarantee that the new managers would be able to resume production. (12/16)
Trade with China and other countries cannot replace trade with the West: 1) The volume is simply too high; 2) The quality of Chinese goods and components is uneven and unreliable; 3) Knowing that it can hold Russia hostage, China will offer highly unfavorable trade terms. (13/16)
This is worse than Iran and Cuba (for the simple reason that Russia is a bigger economy and de-globalization happened at a much more globalized stage of its development). (14/16)
The damage that is already done is extreme, but if the situation goes on for, say, a year, I predict 30% drop in GDP, 20-30% drop in employment and the elimination of at least half of the middle class. (15/16)
Hunger might be avoided by controlling prices on essential food items, but overall, this is misery and destitution that rivals and surpasses the early 1990s. (16/16)

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More from @IlyaMatveev_

Mar 13
A little story about how Alisher Usmanov threatened to sue me - and what it tells about Western complicity in the functioning of the Russian regime (a 🧵).
For context: Usmanov is a typical Russian oligarch. Obscenely rich, corrupt to the bone, investigated by Navalny (his response: "I spit on you, Alexei!") & fully integrated in the Russian regime's infrastructure (through control of key media and internet assets).
A year ago, Ilya Budraitskis and me published a story on the New Left Review blog about Navalny's plight. Among other things, we said the following:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/…
Read 11 tweets
Mar 2
Opinion polls in a dictatorship (thread). Before claiming that "60-70-80% of Russians support Putin, according to the polls", consider two things: 1) non-responses. Lots of people refuse to respond to pollsters, many of them out of fear.
The share of non-responses is not included in the poll results, however, most estimates place it in 30-50% of those surveyed. Out of 150 people, 50 refuse to respond, 30 say they disapprove of Putin and 70 say they approve. What is the actual share of Putin supporters then?
2) Falsification of preferences. Even among those who agree to respond and say they approve of Putin, at least some simply lie - again, out of fear. Bearing in mind these two things, we simply *don't know* the actual number of Putinists in Russia...
Read 8 tweets
Mar 1
Re: boycott of Russian academics. Several people asked how this is different from boycotting South African or Israeli apartheid. @fahad_s_ali helpfully referred to the guidelines written by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). See:
"Anchored in precepts of international law and universal human rights, the BDS movement, including PACBI, rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, or religion) or opinion."
"If, however, an individual is *representing* the state of Israel or a complicit Israeli institution (such as a dean, rector, or president), or is commissioned/recruited to participate in Israel’s efforts to “rebrand” itself...
Read 6 tweets
Feb 28
I'm so disgusted with rejection letters, invitation cancellations, grant withdrawals etc. against Russian scholars from Western academics who fight Putinism by attacking those who have suffered from it for decades.
So encouraging to come home after being chased by riot police and discover that you were excluded from some space/platform b.c. 'you've done too little'. Who are you to judge? You've never risked anything in your life and this costs you nothing.
'It's not about you, it's about the institutions'. And who would teach students and tell them the truth if we abandon the universities? Oh I understand - who cares about Russian students and Russians in general, they're all orcs from Mordor more or less, right?
Read 4 tweets
Feb 27
1) OK, my first thread. Last year I published an academic paper on the interplay of political and economic imperialism in Russia. I did try to read as much as possible and the article is quite comprehensive. I'm sharing it on Academia.edu.

academia.edu/61669024/Betwe…
2) In the paper I argue that up until 2014 Russia was negotiating its position within the global capitalist order dominated by the West. It was aiming at the 'subimperialist' role: a regional power with its own political-economic bloc, yet still integrated in the global economy.
3) In 2014, things changed. Instead of 'subimperialist' status, Russia shifted into full-on confrontation with the West. This marked the divergence between the interests of big capital and the state's geopolitical strategy.
Read 10 tweets

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