Top Russian economist ousted after warning of growing costs of Ukraine war

Andrey Klepach has been removed as the chief economist at Russia’s state development bank VEB, Russian media reported, after a speech was made public in which he warned that Russia’s economy was being harmed by the war on Ukraine.

Russian state news agency TASS reported on Sunday that Klepach no longer held the position at the bank.

“Andrey Klepach is no longer serving as chief economist at VEB.RF. His successor will soon be appointed. The candidate has already been selected,” the bank said in a statement cited by TASS.

Klepach, who was appointed to the role in 2014, also confirmed his dismissal ⁠to the Reuters news agency.

Klepach reportedly warned of the economic damage from the war at a financial forum in May, but the comments were only reported last week.

“We are falling behind. We are losing both the technological and economic competition in the world. And we are losing it not only to China and the United States, in some ways ⁠we are losing it to Ukraine too,” he said, adding that this was due to Kyiv receiving financial support from the West.

Klepach predicted that the economic problems caused by the Ukraine war would create a social crisis. “We will not win the competition in this war of attrition. We have the illusion that everything there (in Ukraine) will collapse. It has not collapsed and will not collapse. Our costs are mounting,” he said.

The speech, published on the website of the Nikitsky Club – a forum of economists, academics and government officials – marked a rare public critique by a senior figure at a state institution of the costs of continuing the war that Moscow launched in 2022.