Shut out of the dollar-based global financial system, cut off from most trade with the West and bogged down in what Vladimir Putin foolishly thought would be a blitzkrieg-like defeat of Ukraine, Russia has nonetheless seen its economy outperform in recent years.
Of course, Moscow got by with a little—or a lot—of help from its friends: China, India and others were happy to import energy volumes Russia could no longer send west. Putin’s regime also was able to shield the middle class from the full consequences of his bloody war of aggression through its own actions—including by propping up the ruble’s exchange rate to limit inflation.