Russia's economy transformed after five years of Ukraine war; analyst warns it now consumes itself faster than it can recover, like climbers above 8,000 meters in mountaineering's death zone.

Russia’s economy has entered the death zone

Alexandra Prokopenko wonders how much longer it can go on metabolising its own muscle tissueIllustration: Dan WilliamsAS RUSSIA’S WAR against Ukraine enters its fifth year, the economy that sustains it has been transformed in ways that will be difficult—perhaps impossible—to reverse without another crisis. Westerners keep waiting for the Russian economy to collapse. It won’t. But nor will it recover. It has entered what mountaineers call the death zone: the altitude above 8,000 metres at which t...