Russia's Economy Is Eating Itself ALIVE! Russia is Closed for Business!

Silicon Bites Ep292 | 2026-02-23 | Russia is closed for business — the war economy that is devouring its own future. Russian opposition economist Vladimir Milov says Russia’s economy now runs on one fuel: state war spending. Businesses can’t invest, workers are disappearing, interest rates crush enterprise — and the Kremlin doesn’t seem to care. The result? A country technically functioning, but economically shutting down, abandoning the core tenets of a market economy, and shedding all vestiges of economic rationality. Russia hasn’t been sanctioned into isolation and oblivion. It’s reorganising itself into a permanent wartime command economy – destroying all the economic progress of the 1990s. ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------SOURCES:AP News — wartime tax pressure on small business (2026)Reuters Breakingviews — fiscal strain and depletion of reserves (Feb 2026)The Moscow Times — stagnation, falling profits, investment slowdown The Moscow Times — taxes rising and growth ~1% PISM / economic analysis — 21% interest rates, labour shortage Wilson Center — war economy discourages investmentRUSI — inflation driven by war spendingGuardian economic analysis — labour shortages and tax increases Kyiv Independent interview with Vladimir Milov — reserves depletion and investment collapse----------SILICON CURTAIN LIVE EVENTS - FUNDRAISER CAMPAIGN Events in 2025 - Advocacy for a Ukrainian victory with Silicon Curtainhttps://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasOur events of the first half of the year in Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa were a huge success. Now we need to maintain this momentum, and change the tide towards a Ukrainian victory. The Silicon Curtain Roadshow is an ambitious campaign to run a minimum of 12 events in 2025, and potentially many more. Any support you can provide for the fundraising campaign would be gratefully appreciated. https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extrasWe need to scale up our support for Ukraine, and these events are designed to have a major impact. Your support in making it happen is greatly appreciated. All events will be recorded professionally and published for free on the Silicon Curtain channel. Where possible, we will also live-stream events.https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras----------