Russia's record employment signals a surprisingly smooth decoupling from the West. Its rapid replacement of McDonald's and Starbucks says business as usual. Yet pressures are building inside its economic machine.
Six months into the Ukraine conflict, the strategies and struggles of Russia's biggest automaker offers an insight into the contrasting fortunes of a country striving to withstand what Russian President Vladimir Putin calls an economic "blitzkrieg" by the West.
Avtovaz restarted production of its Lada brand this summer after it was halted in March in the face of Western sanctions, supply shortages and the loss of its French partner Renault. It has not formally laid off any of its 42,000 workers.
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