From Robin Brooks, chief economist at the International Institute of Finance:

Russia’s economy is imploding. We forecast a GDP collapse of -30% by end-2022. Russia has stopped publishing data, but our tracking of exports from 20 countries to Russia give a clue. Those exports are down over -50% in April 2022 from a year ago (blue). With @JonathanPingle pic.twitter.com/4intbaNc0O

— Robin Brooks (@RobinBrooksIIF) May 22, 2022

Year-on-year April exports to Russia - oof:

April exports to Russia, y-o-y

🇨🇳-26%
🇹🇼-67%
🇻🇳-77%
🇰🇷-71%

Compared to December 2021 exports down more than 50% in China, more than 70% in the three other countries. pic.twitter.com/OHjyWCZkly

— Iikka Korhonen (@IikkaKorhonen) May 16, 2022

Though the Kremlin will never openly admit it, Russia’s economy is in serious trouble - and it’s far worse then they’re letting on.