All right, Alexander, let's talk about the Russian economy, which is not in Tatters.

It's actually projected for even better growth than what they were saying.

Last time, the economic ministry gave their projections. They had it, I believe, like 1.8% or 2% growth.

Now they're putting it at, what is it, 2.8 or 3% growth. And they're saying that

2024 could also be a very strong year for growth. Very different. The outlook for the Russian economy

is very different than what you're getting from the UK, what you're getting from Germany,

which is now being called the sick man of Europe. I mean, that's, that's the German economy now,

the sick man of Europe. How do you explain what's going on? Well, I think it's not actually difficult. I mean, this is, this is

largely a product of two things. Firstly, there is the highest spending that the Russian government

has engaged in on the wall, and there's no doubt that there has been an increase in spending,

that arms industries are producing more,

and that is undoubtedly strengthening economic,

or increasing economic activity altogether.

But that's only a part of the picture, and in my opinion, far and away the

smallest part of the picture. The main reason the economy is taking off in the way that it has

is because of sanctions. The whole way the sanctions thing has played out. Firstly, last year

we had the sanctions imposed.

That caused Western companies to pull out en masse from Russia.

That caused huge numbers of niches in the Russian economy that needed to be filled,

which of course provided a huge number of business opportunities to all sorts of people.

There was also a worry at that time

on the part of many, many people about what would happen to the economy in the face of the

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