The Kremlin turns Putin’s distorted data on the economy
Russian President Vladimir Putin regularly receives reports on the state of the Russian economy, assessments that the information in them is distorted are incorrect, press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov told the Financial Times.
“Any measurement that he is getting skewed information is wrong. He has all sorts of information, he has meetings of the economic cabinet almost every week,” said said Peskov.
Possibilities of declassifying large amounts of data are being discussed among Russian politicians. In particular, to this meeting of the head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina. Secret data, writes the FT, includes information on foreign exchange reserves and exports.
“The lack of transparency in statistics creates problems even for those inside the system,” a Russian Central Bank official told the newspaper.
At the same time, Peskov said that there was a “hybrid war, including an economic one,” against the Moscow administration, and it is natural that some data is classified.
“Everyone, you need to know, everyone who participates in the process of developing economic policy has access to the full range of data, statistics and so on,” the Kremlin said.
On July 6, 2022, the State Duma adopted a government law that introduced an initiative regarding counter-sanctions information and restricts its distribution to an indefinite circle of people using the media or the Internet. Such information means information about transactions already completed or only about the implementation of transactions of any persons, participants in the foreign trade activities of the Russian Federation, the dissemination of which may lead to entry, affecting the Russian market.
The adoption of amendments in the State Duma explains the claim “to protect [от санкций] participants in the process who are now looking for new supply chains, entrepreneurs are taking measures to make up for a possible shortage of goods in Russia.” According to Art. 13.14 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for the disclosure of information with restricted access, which includes counter-sanction data, citizens face a fine in the amount of 5,000 to 10,000 rubles, and legal entities – from 100,000 to 200,000 rubles.