Putin Increasingly Worried About Russian Economy: ISW [Video]

The Kremlin is concerned about what is in store for Russia’s economy, despite Vladimir Putin’s efforts to talk up the country’s growth amid high inflation, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said.

While Russia has weathered the financial instability caused by Western-led sanctions to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, it has enjoyed relatively high growth, fueled by record military spending.

Putin acknowledged the problem of rising prices when he told the VTB bank forum in Moscow on Wednesday about “the need to curb inflation” and “the fight against inflation,” according to a transcript on the Kremlin website.

But the Russian president also accentuated the positive when he said the economy would grow by 4 percent by the end of this year and boasted of GDP growth of 4.1 percent in the year to October, driven in part by manufacturing.