Russia should nationalize large parts of its economy to boost war effort, Kremlin law enforcement official says

Russian President Vladimir Putin.Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool photo via `

• The chief of the Russian criminal police said important parts of the economy should be nationalized.

• State ownership would support Russia’s war effort against Ukraine, Alexander Bastrykin said, according to Reuters.

• “We’re basically talking about economic security in a war.”

According to Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Federal Criminal Investigation Agency, important parts of Russia’s economy should be brought back under state control to support Moscow’s war effort against Ukraine.

Bastrykin, who heads the investigative committee chief and reports directly to President Vladimir Putin, hinted as much during a video conference call on Saturday, according to Reuters.

“We’re basically talking about economic security in a war,” he said. “Let us go down the path of nationalization of the main sectors of our economy.”

To be sure, large parts of the economy are already under the de facto control of the Kremlin. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia attempted a series of privatizations across the economy in the 1990s.

So-called oligarchs then owned some of Russia’s most valuable assets, but many later sold them or ceded control back to the Putin-led state.

Indeed, Gazprom, the country’s largest natural gas company, is state-owned, while oil giant Rosneft is run by Putin’s ally Igor Sechin.

Since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine’s economy has been dramatically weakened and transformed.

Energy production and oil exports have long provided the bulk of the country’s revenue, but the West has imposed sanctions on the sector over the past year.

Meanwhile, direct trade between the euro zone and Russia has collapsed, with European Central Bank calculations showing volumes have halved from pre-war levels.

Moscow has largely focused on oil shipments to China and India, which together now account for the bulk of Russian exports.

Although official statistics indicate that the Russian economy has withstood the sanctions, other signs point to a free fall.

The story goes on

The Russian economy is struggling with record-breaking labor shortages, according to a central bank survey last month.

Russia’s economy is becoming increasingly primitive as the war in Ukraine drags on, University of Chicago professor Konstantin Sonin said recently. And an adviser to Finland’s central bank said Russia is experiencing “reverse industrialization.”

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