president in 2000. The economy has expanded elevenfold from $199bn in the aftermath of Moscow’s default on the Soviet-era debt, to $2,200bn – despite the global financial crisis. And while this growth was partly due to rising oil prices, it also reflects expansion in key industries such as aerospace and infrastructure. True, growth stalled badly in 2014-15 when Western sanctions hit amid a collapsing oil price. Yet sanctions have had benefits, too, in terms of more “localisation”: food processing and
agriculture, for instance, have both surged – the country is now the world’s largest wheat exporter. Relations with the West are bad at present. But Russia is on the ball. “This remains a big, deceptively resilient and strategically vital economy. Money talks and it is naive to think Russia can be commercially isolated.”
