The chief economist of a Russian state development bank has been fired after reportedly drawing comparisons between Russia’s present day economy with the 1917 revolution. Andrei Klepach, one of Russia's most prominent macroeconomists who worked for VEB, made the remarks to a financial forum in May. They were reported by Russian media only last week He warned that the country was falling behind the West and China and suffering mounting economic damage from the war in Ukraine, two sources familiar with the matter told .
Yet, let me remind you, no one expected the [1917] February revolution either,” he said in reference to how Russia’s last tsar Nicholas II was overthrown, according to The Times. 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.
"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, predicting a social crisis. The speech is published on the website of the Nikitsky Club - a forum of economists, academics and government officials. The moment 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.
Klepach has held several roles at economic institutions and worked at the economy ministry for 10 years before joining VEB. VEB, which finances state projects, confirmed in a written response that Klepach was no longer its chief economist, but did not say why. Klepach, who was appointed to the role in 2014, also confirmed his dismissal to .
While Klepach highlighted Russia’s resilience to Western sanctions in the May speech, he warned pressures were mounting due to Ukrainian strikes on energy and logistics infrastructure. He pointed to rising income inequality and a slower GDP growth rate than in the US and Ukraine. In July, the Russian central bank suggested the economy might not grow at all this year.
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