Three ways the Ukraine-Russia war could end ... but who will blink first?

Charles Hecker, author of Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia and an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, described an economy under “crushing pressure”, which is now at a turning point. “Most forecasts anticipate that GDP growth in the coming year will turn negative,” he said. “The anticipation is that the economy will fully go into recession.” The aim of sanctions, Mr Hecker stressed, “has been to choke off its [Russia's] ability to finance the war, and that is proving increasingly successful.” Commercial property for rent in central Moscow, as the Russian economy is struggling. But he cautioned that the West does not want the Russian economy to completely collapse due to the “geopolitical instability that that could cause … we just want Russia to stop financing the war.”