RUSSIA PERSPECTIVE

Russian state media frame the economic situation with the Kremlin's codified vocabulary. TASS presents the key rate cut to 15% as a 'managed stabilization of the national economy,' carefully avoiding the term stagnation. RIA Novosti emphasizes Russia has withstood 'unprecedented Western economic pressure' and the multipolar economic model works—BRICS now represent an alternative trade network to Western circuits.

RT produces reports on the successes of parallel imports and import substitution, framing sanctions as a catalyst for domestic innovation. The besieged fortress narrative is omnipresent: Russia is attacked but resists, and every indicator is spun positively—the rise in life satisfaction to 57% is cited as proof of national resilience.

Novaya Gazeta, from abroad, paints a radically different picture: oil revenues down 50% year-on-year, military budget consuming 38% of federal spending, critical labor shortage from frontline losses and emigration of hundreds of thousands of skilled workers. The paper notes the VAT increase from 20% to 22% and the lowered billing threshold to 10 million rubles hit small businesses and the middle class—the real losers of the war economy.