This is CBS I in the World.

I'm John Bachel.

The Russian economy.

I welcome Michael Bernstum.

My guide on the Russian economy since the severe sanctions were visited upon the Russian

Federation in the winter of 22.

Now the third winter of war, and what is the Russian economy?

The headline in Reuters, everything for the front.

That is a phrase that resonates in Russia because it harkens back to the great patriotic

war of the 1940s.

Everything for the front.

The people of Moscow starved those winters.

There was inadequate food for the children.

The sunken cheeks were gave away, and whenever there was access to fresh food, it was always

in the hands of the elite or the visitors in Moscow.

Everything for the front.

Russia alots a third of its 2024 spending to defense.

The defense industry, I'm told, is reawakening from its slumber of the years between the first

Cold War and whatever history calls this moment right now.

The defense factories are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

They're in competition for young men to work in them, in competition with the military,

in competition with all other industries.

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