Putin’s Plan: Tax Rich Russians or Keep War Economy Cooking
Russia's economy is performing what top guy Alexander Shokhin called a 'managed soft landing' that feels more like a drunk skydiver missing the parachute. With GDP growth slumping from a hopeful 4.3% in 2024 to a pitiful 1.1% expected in 2025, Moscow’s brain trust quietly cheers. Why? Because Putin thinks hiking taxes on the rich will magically fill war coffers for the Ukraine campaign that started in 2022—and because apparently bleeding billionaires is easier than fixing factories weighed down by sanctions. Shokhin suggests Russia needs a comfy 2%-2.5% growth to juggle defense, social spending, and angry bank trolls raising interest rates to cool an overheated war economy. Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s military-industrial complex is thriving, like a cockroach in a post-apocalyptic freezer. All this according to Russian bureaucratic wisdom on a Tuesday news show, because when your economy’s tanking, a tax on Ivan’s yachts seems like the logical lifeboat.
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Russia’s economy is like your phone on 1% battery: sure, keep browsing TikTok, but Putin’s just figured out taxing billionaires is the new charger to keep the war going because why fix growth when you can squeeze the rich harder?
If Russia’s economy was a car, it’s stalled with Putin trying to pump gas by shaking down oligarchs. Bonus: the engine’s on fire and nobody learned how to use a fire extinguisher.
GDP growth dropping, interest rates hiking, but hey, at least Putin’s got a plan: slap taxes on the rich and pray the war economy doesn’t flatline. Economic strategy or desperation? You decide.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 10/3/2025 | Author: Huileng Tan
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