(CNN) — Andrey Klepach, one of Russia’s top economists, has been replaced as chief economist of the country’s national development bank shortly after a speech was made public in which he reportedly said Russia’s economy was being damaged by the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s state news agency TASS confirmed Sunday that Klepach “no longer holds the position of chief economist at VEB,” one of Russia’s largest banks, but did not give a reason for his departure. A new candidate has been selected and will be appointed soon, TASS added. VEB repeated the same statement to CNN.
That announcement came two days after The Moscow Times, an independent Russian newspaper, published extracts of a speech Klepach gave in May at a forum of economists and academics known as the Nikitsky Club.
According to the newspaper, Klepach warned that Russia was “losing both the technological and economic competition globally” and would not win a war of attrition while Ukraine had financial backing from Western powers. Eventually, he said, “I’m almost certain we’re coming up against a social crisis.”
Klepach’s comments, and his subsequent departure, serve as a reminder both of the internal criticisms directed towards President Vladimir Putin as his war in Ukraine drags on, and the cost incurred by those who speak out.
Klepach noted that Russia’s war in Ukraine has lasted longer than the Great Patriotic War – the term used in Russia to describe the Soviet Union’s war against Nazi Germany – and there is still “no end in sight.”
Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure, Western sanctions and high domestic interest rates are all combining to hinder Russia’s economic growth, he added.
Since May, when Klepach made this speech, Ukraine has intensified its aerial assaults against Russian infrastructure in what appears to be an effort to bring the war home to everyday Russians and to press the country’s business elite to push for an end to hostilities.
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