Pjotr Sauer

So the Russian economy is slowing down.

I mean, that is clear.

We're seeing that in statistics, but also from reports from Putin's own officials have warned him that, you know,

they can't continue spending on the military as much as much as they do right now.

They sometimes tell him the truth.

Sometimes the economic bloc, you know, they deal with numbers, and they're often a bit more realistic.

Yeah, you know, it's important to realize that in the first two, three years of the war, Russia's economy actually was booming.

And a lot of people inside Russia were saying that they never made as much money as they did in the first two, three years.

I mean, I think it's a classic case of a war economy where lots of money was pushed into the economy, a lot of the reserves.

So people's salaries were rising.

A lot of the families of soldiers suddenly became rich because of all this money they received from their death.

uh husbands but over the last two years we've seen a turning point and now when i speak to russians they say things are very hard uh inflation is rising and the russian government has taxed a lot of the small and middle businesses in order to keep on spending on the war so we're seeing a turning point and we're seeing that it's getting much harder for for an average russian

What about the business elites in Russia, the oligarchs?

They play a key role, don't they, in Putin's Russia?

They're in his inner circle.

Are they telling him any hard truths yet?

A few weeks ago, Putin got all the other guys together again, and he asked them to contribute to the war.

Oh, financially.

Financially, and some did.

I think together they contributed some $3 billion, which is not an insignificant sum.