Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russia's deepening economic problems have resulted in a collapse in commodities earnings, drastic cuts in federal government spending and rail freight yards being clogged with thousands of Chinese shipping containers that are sitting empty for want of goods to export. ⬇️

2/ The Moscow Times reports that Russian government statistics are showing a dire eocnomic situation. As of 27 May, the Ministry of Finance had spent 48% of the allocated budget but had only collected 40% of forecast revenues. The deficit stands at 134% of the planned amount.

3/ The government has cut its spending for June to 44 billion rubles a day ($498 million), half the average for the previous five months. Federal tax collections have fallen by 19% compared to the same period in 2022.

4/ Oil and gas revenues have halved from 5.658 to 2.853 trillion rubles ($64 billion to $32.3 billion). Exports to Europe have collapsed, and oil companies are having to give double-digit discounts to Indian and Chinese buyers.

5/ The government's expenses have increased by 26% to 13.23 trillion rubles, of which almost a third, 3.9 trillion rubles, is being spent on secret items of expenditure. Secret military spending is likely to amount for as much as 3.1 trillion rubles of this.

6/ This represents an increase of 3.5 trillion rubles since last year in the secret category. Taking into account 884 billion rubles of open military spending, the total military expenditure could amount to 4 trillion ($45.3 bn).

7/ Russia's economic difficulties are particularly symbolised by the mountains of empty Chinese shipping containers piling up at railway stations across the country. This is because Russia imports far more from China than it exports.

8/ An additional problem is that the type of exports between the two countries differ: China mostly exports manufactured goods in containers, while Russia mostly exports raw materials in open wagons (gondola cars) or tanks.

9/ According to the Moscow Times, "the situation is almost critical, and logistics operators have already begun to offer big discounts for the export of containers in the direction of China, so delivery in that direction is much cheaper."

10/ This enables freight companies to at least ship something and not just send back empty containers at a bigger loss. /end

Sources:
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