Gripped by heavy economic sanctions and increasingly isolated from Western suppliers, Russia worked Thursday to keep its factories and businesses running and stave off a return to Soviet-era scarcity.
As the central bank slashed interest rates again in an effort to prop up the economy, its chair, Elvira Nabiullina, warned that the coming months would be "difficult for both companies and citizens” as the fallout on the Russian economy deepens more than three months into the invasion of Ukraine.
The economic toll on Russia, although difficult to quantify, has spread widely, from its largest companies to its small shops and workers.