Hopes dashed, panic in Moscow. Dramatic situation

• Russia is on the brink of recession, and the Kremlin's hopes for a turnaround have dimmed as oil prices have fallen.
• The price of Brent crude fell from $79 to $66, while Russian Urals crude fell to about $63, adding to concerns in Moscow.
• During the forum in St. Petersburg, leading Russian entrepreneurs openly criticized the lack of investment and high interest rates.

The Russian economy minister recently publicly stated that Russia is on the verge of recession , while the Kremlin is calling for deeper interest rate cuts to boost the economy.

Oil prices are of key importance for the Russian economy. They rose as a result of the escalation of the Israeli-Iranian conflict, which gave Russia hope for improving its financial results. However, everything changed quickly.

On Monday, June 23 , a barrel of Brent crude oil cost $79. On Tuesday morning, when it was already known that the conflict between Israel and Iran was coming to an end, a barrel of Brent cost less than $69, and on Monday, June 30, it was already $66.

In turn, the price of Urals oil, the main export grade of Russian oil, approached $75 per barrel. After the ceasefire, prices fell to $64. Currently, the price is slightly above $63.

As Rafał Hirsch wrote in CIS, during the forum in St. Petersburg , where Vladimir Putin spoke:

• German Gref, CEO of Sberbank, complained that his bank had not financed a single large investment project this year;
• in turn, Alexey Mordashov, the main shareholder in Severstal, said that steel production in Russia has fallen by 14 percent this year, and there are more and more bankruptcies in the environment;
• The common denominator of all these speeches was the criticism of excessively high interest rates, but since the head of the Russian central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, is widely perceived as "Putin's man", these complaints can also be interpreted as public criticism of Putin himself.

Let us recall that in January and February almost 30 percent of the state's revenues came from oil and gas.