“All of my industrial companies are experiencing a massive shortage of resources,” it says. “It involves the production of parts for building tanks, machines and material to process food. And those are only those that I personally know about. Likewise, we have a shortage of working capital.”
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, sees this as proof that Western sanctions are working.
Research from Yale University showed last year that the Russian economy has been “catastrophically paralyzed” since the introduction of Western sanctions. Imports, among other things, largely collapsed. “Russia now needs to get critical parts and technology supplied from reluctant trading partners. That leads to widespread supply shortages in the domestic economy,” it said at the time.
Domestic production came to a complete standstill as a result. “Putin is failing to replace lost businesses, products and talents, despite his delusions of self-sufficiency and replacing imports. As long as the West remains united in maintaining and increasing sanctions pressure, there is no way for Russia to emerge from economic obscurity,” the report said.