Boris Titov’s comments to the business news portal RBK have become a rare sign that there is concern within the Kremlin environment about the increasing pressure to ensure victory in the war in Ukraine, which has been ongoing for four and a half years, amid a slowing economy.
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In 2024, B. Titov was appointed as V. Putin’s special representative to international organizations to achieve sustainable development goals. He is a wealthy businessman who previously controlled Russia’s largest sparkling wine producer. He also led an influential business lobby group and participated in the 2018 Russian presidential election.
“Military and civilian economies have always existed in symbiosis everywhere. Many technical inventions useful to all emerged precisely within the military industry. The essential thing is to maintain balance,” B. Titov told RBK.
Russia has increased taxes, started wealth redistribution, urged businesses to contribute to war financing, and recently began threatening business owners who do not adequately protect their facilities from Ukrainian drones.
War supporters and some government officials often cite the Soviet Union’s economic restructuring during World War II under dictator Joseph Stalin as an example, recalling the slogan of that time: “Everything for the front, everything for victory.”
“Such a regime can only be temporary”
This approach is met with cautious but growing resistance across various layers.
“This is not really an economy but a kind of uncontrolled regime that can only exist for a very limited time, and the necessity to apply it must be assessed very carefully,” B. Titov said on the eve of an important economic forum in Russia’s Far East, which V. Putin will attend this week.
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RBK noted in the interview that the term “berserk” originated from Scandinavian mythology warriors who entered a trance state, possibly induced by narcotics, enabling them to fight fiercely and feel no pain.
It is forecasted that this year Russia’s economy will grow by only 0.4%, while many non-military sectors stagnate or shrink. Ukrainian strikes on economic targets—such as oil refineries, online retail companies, and oil and grain export infrastructure—may further reduce this growth rate.
B. Titov’s comments echo the statement made last month by Moscow’s technocrat mayor Sergei Sobyanin that “the destruction of a normal economy is equivalent to the destruction of the entire country.”
Spoke out and lost his position
Last month, the chief economist of the state development bank, Andrey Klepach, lost his position after publicly emphasizing the economic challenges posed by the war.
This month, parliamentary elections will be held in Russia, in which the only political party openly calling for an end to the war was banned from participating. Polls show growing war fatigue and support for a peace agreement.
Such sentiments are further strengthened by persistent rumors about a possible large-scale military mobilization to be announced after the elections for a final attempt to capture the entire Donbas region of Ukraine. The Kremlin calls these rumors a deception.
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