Russia
The world's largest country by area, a nuclear-armed permanent UN Security Council member, an oil-and-gas-export-driven macro that pivoted under Western sanctions following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine to a yuan-trade and parallel-import economy with rebuilt fiscal mechanics.
Russia
Overview
Russia is a federal semi-presidential republic that took the Soviet Union's seat at the United Nations Security Council in December 1991. The Constitution of 1993, with substantive 2020 amendments, names the federal subjects, the bicameral Federal Assembly, and the President as central institutions. The Bank of Russia runs an inflation-targeting framework operating under post-February-2022 sanctions constraints. The macro structure is anchored on oil-and-gas-export revenue, with mining, metals, agriculture, and a defense-industrial base behind. Following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the Western sanctions package, the country pivoted to ruble-yuan-led trade settlement, parallel imports, and a rebuilt fiscal mechanic with the budget rule suspended and the National Wealth Fund drawn down. The current macro question is how durable that adaptation is, against the backdrop of the war, the G7-plus oil-price-cap, and a sustained brain drain.
Five structural pillars
Federal semi-presidential architecture under a strong presidency. The Constitution describes a separation among the President, the Federal Assembly (bicameral: State Duma below, Federation Council above), the government headed by the Prime Minister, and a court system. In practice power is centralized in the presidency, a pattern reinforced by the 2020 constitutional amendments S7,S8.
Resource-export economy with a defense-industrial base. Oil, natural gas, refined products, metals, fertilizers, and grain are the dominant export categories. Manufacturing outside the resource and defense complexes is comparatively shallow; the post-2022 import-substitution and parallel-import frameworks aim to backfill consumer and industrial-input shortages S6,S10.
Inflation-targeting central bank operating under sanctions constraints. The Bank of Russia targets 4 percent CPI inflation through the key rate, runs a managed-float ruble, and intermediates the ruble-yuan trade-settlement architecture that emerged after major Russian banks were excluded from SWIFT in 2022. The CBR also coordinates the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) as a domestic alternative S3,S13.
Sustained natural-decrease demographics with a sex-mortality gap. Population is on a multi-year natural-decrease trajectory. Life expectancy is ≈ 71 years overall, with men ≈ 65 years and women ≈ 77 years, one of the largest sex gaps among large economies. Pension and health-insurance frameworks face structural pressure S5,S15.
Post-2022 fiscal-rule suspension and National-Wealth-Fund drawdown. The budget rule that mechanically channeled excess oil-and-gas revenue into NWF accumulation was suspended in 2022; subsequent reformulations narrowed the cut-off price. NWF liquid assets have been drawn down materially. The Federal Treasury monthly tracking is the primary public window into the fiscal envelope S4,S13.
Continue with the data
Where to go in the data next
The indicator chapter is the live snapshot. Start with the CBR key rate and CPI, then read the ruble exchange rate and oil-and-gas revenue, then read labor and external balance.