Vladimir Putin’s money machine is sputtering

FROM KALININGRAD to Vladivostok, something has changed. A high-frequency index produced by Goldman Sachs, a bank, suggests that, since the end of last year, Russia’s annualised GDP growth has fallen from around 5% to about zero (see chart). VEB, the Russian development bank, finds similar trends in its estimate of monthly growth. A measure of business turnover compiled by Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, has dipped. Although more circumspect, the government acknowledges that something is up. In early April the central bank noted that recently “a number of sectors recorded lower output because of plummeting…demand”.