The mayor of Moscow said that a shift to a war economy would lead to Russia's collapse
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin spoke out against the idea of shifting the Russian economy to a “war footing,” stating that such a move could ruin the country. He made this statement in an interview with the Russian state news agency TASS.
According to Sobyanin, proposals to introduce a so-called “war economy,” which are periodically voiced in Russia, are unfounded and dangerous. The day before, Andrei Kolesnik, a member of the Russian State Duma’s Defense Committee, had once again put forward such an initiative.
“If there is no economy of peacetime, there will be no taxes, no income for the population, and the political situation will be completely different. Then we will not succeed in the war. Destroying a normal economy means destroying the country altogether,” Sobyanin stated.
The mayor of Moscow also called talk of the need to fully switch the economy to a wartime footing “nonsense” and noted that it is being promoted by people who, in his opinion, do not understand the principles of how a modern economy functions or how war is waged.
As noted in the article, discussions about Russia’s possible transition to a mobilization economy intensified in the spring. At that time, rumors were circulating in the Russian media and political circles about the possible imposition of martial law, the closure of borders, increased state control over the economy, and personnel changes in the government.
In particular, a number of media outlets reported that Elvira Nabiullina, the head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, was allegedly considering resigning due to her disagreement with such plans. There were also reports of a likely government reshuffle and the creation of a system focused on the centralized allocation of resources and priority funding for the defense industry.
Analysts also speculated that economic mobilization could be accompanied by a new wave of military mobilization. Experts from U.S. think tanks had previously written about this possibility, and sources at The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and a number of independent Russian publications had also reported on it.
The day before, Russian State Duma Deputy Andrei Kolesnik called for putting the country’s economy “on a war footing” and launching, in his words, “normal military operations,” explaining this as a necessary response to attacks on Russian territory.
Source: The Moscow Times.
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