The high growth rate of Russian GDP, like the images of the BRICS summit in Kazan, are used by Moscow as showcases of the failure of Western forecasts: the Russian economy has in fact not collapsed and is not not totally isolated either. It is not neutral in the ideological war that the great powers are waging, because the theme of Russian resilience has a strong resonance for all populations affected by 'double standards': a good growth figure is perceived as a weakness of the West, or even an incentive to resist it.
So let's not be naive, economic analysis is part of hybrid warfare, as soon as it is transformed into what the military calls a cognitive arena. The IMF has just canceled a mission to Russia, after a letter of protest from European Finance Ministers. That being said, what can we understand from this growth rate? What does it tell us about the war, the capacity to finance it and the impact of all this on the global geopolitical scenario?
