ISW: Kremlin continues to falsely reassure Russian public that Ukraine war won't have significant economic consequences
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Russian President Vladimir Putin held a State Council Presidium meeting on April 4 to discuss developing Russian industry in the face of sanctions pressure, during which he claimed that sanctions are having "positive outcomes" by forcing Russian firms to embrace import substitution.
This is an argument the Kremlin has made sporadically since the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the Institute for the Study of War said in their latest update.
"Putin suggested that Russian industry as a whole will be able to grow like the Russian agricultural sector did following the imposition of Western sanctions in 2014," the ISW said.
Russian president has previously relied on the example of post-2014 Russian agricultural growth to assuage Russian population of their economic anxieties but has yet to offer concrete proposals for how Russian industry would increase domestic production in a similar way.
ISW previously assessed that the Kremlin "will likely struggle to reassure Russians about their economic concerns" while also setting informational conditions for a protracted war in Ukraine and mobilizing a wider portion of Russia’s defense industrial base.
